


bend your chest open

by krxmbl



Category: SEVENTEEN (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Humor, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, also attempts at, eventually lol, high school boys being high school boys, this is a generally happy fic but teenage angst™ will come into play
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-03-03
Updated: 2017-08-15
Packaged: 2018-09-27 19:29:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 29,095
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10042217
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/krxmbl/pseuds/krxmbl
Summary: all minghao wants to do is be a good student, stay out of trouble, and have another relatively normal year of high school.unfortunately, he has physiology with none other than wen junhui, so that may make it a little difficult.even more unfortunately, however, minghao can't help but wonder if he can have chemistry with him, too.





	1. so you kinda scare me

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Minghao isn't sure if he likes physiology.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hello friends 
> 
> honestly have no idea where this is going but I kinda wanted to see what I could do with my own writing hehe
> 
> my new year's resolution was to write more + actually publish things so here ya go. hope you enjoy :^)

Look, it’s not like it was a bad thing to be a positive person. Minghao found it incredibly admirable, actually. But Mrs. So was such a chipper person that it got a little tiring, even after just a couple of minutes.

Her voice was sweet and carefree, a rise and fall came every so often, but Minghao thought it was for drama and emphasis more than anything else. It was quite nice to see how passionate she was about teaching, though. He could tell just by the way she acted that she loved her job. When Minghao came into the room, she was singing some song about new days and making memories, and he thought to himself -

“This woman is crazy.”

And she was a little kooky, to be honest, at least compared to other teachers. Her fashion sense was quite bizarre, with a yellow raincoat overtop a shirt with a cartoon watermelon on it. She was a lot more animated than others too, and it was a pleasant change of pace, considering that all of the other teachers had seemed just as tired as the students on the first day of school.

Something that made her stand out, as she explained with pride, was that she said that not only was she excited to teach her class about the human body, but also planned to teach them how to be good members of the world through social interaction. She wanted to prove to them that nobody could work by themselves in this world, so they would need to learn how to work as a unit rather than an individual.

Minghao immediately translated this into “group work”. He sighed to himself, only because he knew with his luck, he would get somebody that’s lazy and never does their part, only to leave him with significantly more to do than he should have had in the first place. It was a good thing that his people skills were pretty solid, though. He didn’t mind working with other people, just so long as they actually worked too. 

“Yes, yes, how lovely!” Mrs. So’s excitement rang and had no problem reaching every single student in the class. “So, what I’m planning to do is make you and the person behind you partners, just for simplicity’s sake. Oh yes, this looks good.”

Minghao sat still in his seat. He knew who was sitting behind him. He didn’t need to turn around. Coming to class early that day let him choose from any of the seats since nobody was sitting in them yet. People started to shuffle in and take up the spaces though, eventually filling up all of the rows. The person that took the seat behind him just happened to be none other than Wen Junhui.

The first time he heard that there was actually another Chinese transfer student at his school, he was pretty excited. He hoped that they could bond over that, even if they weren’t in the same grade and it had been so long since they’d both moved here that it wouldn’t have really mattered anyway. However, from what Minghao has heard around school, Junhui wasn’t the kind of person that he would want to get to know. 

He’s only heard rumors, whispers from people around campus. Things like he smokes with the teachers on the weekends. Things like he could down liquor like water. Things like he stole anything he wanted and would throw a hand at anybody who would just look at him in a way that he didn’t like.

He didn’t look like the most pleasant person either. He seemed like the amalgamation of every single high school bad boy in every teenage movie released in the mid 2000’s, only Asian, and arguably more lanky, with the same expression on his face that Minghao could only describe as 80% bored, 20% sleepy.

Wen Junhui did not look like somebody that Minghao would enjoy working with, seeing that Minghao was a late bloomer, still barely growing hair in certain places. As much as he didn’t want to admit it, he was a small, innocent child, especially when compared to the senior, so he decided silently to avoid communicating with him as much as possible.

“Well,” Mrs. So’s voice broke through his train of thought, “I think it would only be appropriate to introduce yourselves.”

Well, shit.

“I mean after all, this person is going to be your partner for the rest of the year!”

Well,  _ fucking _ shit.

With a sigh of discontent, Minghao turns to see Junhui leaning far back into his chair, the infamous look of disinterestedness in his eyes. It didn’t even look like he was paying attention the entire time by how he looked up at Minghao with slight confusion on his face.

“Hi, I’m Xu Minghao. I guess we’re gonna be partners for the year. Your name is Junhui, right?” Minghao starts with a fake smile. He hated introducing himself. Formalities were lame. 

“Just call me Jun.” His voice wasn’t as gruff as Minghao would have imagined it, but he spoke in a low mumble.

“Well, it’s nice to meet you. I look forward to working with you.” 

Minghao lied straight through his teeth. He wondered if Jun could tell. Even if he did, it didn’t look like he cared, completely unphased by it, only nodding in response. Minghao turned back around and sighed again. He took a moment to think about all of the projects that he would have to stay up to finish on his own because of god knows what Jun would be doing. He wanted to curse Mrs. So, but her bubbliness showed too much of how good of a person she was for him to want to wish any negativity on her. Plus, it was the first day. He would feel bad for hexing somebody that he barely met. 

The rest of the period went by with her talking about the class syllabus, basic things like expectations, whether or not you could use your phone in class (she allowed it, which probably meant that Jun would do even less work than he would have before), and the grading scale. Eventually, the bell rang and it released the students off to lunch.

As one last effort to start on the right foot with Jun, Minghao waves and says goodbye to him, only to be responded to with a momentary stare that led to Jun just leaving the class. Minghao just sighed once more, walking out to lunch.

Minghao and his group of friends sat under the same tree every day to eat. It’s been like that for years now. There was a old wooden table with a lot of holes in it where they sat, leaves constantly littering it, but it was theirs. 

First of all, there was Seungkwan, a loud, abrasive, and hilarious sophomore that Minghao met in chemistry last year. He was the type of guy to never take shit from anybody and had impeccable comedic timing. The kid was also pretty smart, taking all of the advanced classes in school and tending to ace them more than anything. His biggest vice was the fact that he procrastinated though, and Minghao would occasionally see him update his snapchat at four in the morning with a page full of notes and the caption being somewhere along the lines of: “I regret every decision I have made up until this point in my life”.

Another two idiots that Minghao met in chemistry last year were Soonyoung and Seokmin. Seokmin was in the same grade as Minghao and Soonyoung was a year above them, but you wouldn’t be able to tell, especially when they’re with each other. Minghao swears he’s never seen two people more perfect for each other, in some weird, annoying, and loud definition of “perfect”. The four of them sat next to one another, becoming close friends as the year went on. 

Then there was Mingyu. A childhood companion of Minghao’s. The guy helped him out when he first moved to this country all those years ago, and he was always nice to anybody and everybody that he met. A lot of people saw him as the tall, dark and handsome boy of their school, which Minghao couldn’t deny was an accurate description. It’s just that he’s probably one of the few people that know that Mingyu is essentially a toddler stuck in a six-foot tall teenage body.

“Minghao, pleeeeeease? You know I really like Cheez-its,” he whined.

“Mingyu, I need this money to home today, you know I take the bus.”

“But it’s only so often that the cafeteria sells anything other than super-processed low-fat Rice Krispies and sad excuses for soda. And come on, they have white cheddar!” 

Minghao shook his head and took a bite out of his homemade lunch. Mingyu pouted and swung his body around, but he knew that he doesn’t have the ability to convince Minghao to comply. Suddenly, a bag of Doritos hits the taller one on the face.

Seokmin smiles, something signature to him. “It’s okay, I didn’t want it anyway. Go ahead.” Instead of getting angry, Mingyu grins as he picks it up and starts to eat it.

The group went on to complain about how their first day of school was going. Soonyoung was unfortunate enough to get the hardest Calculus teacher in the school, to which, as he says, is a “numbing pain. Like I feel nothing. I just know I’m not gonna pass.” 

“What about you, Hao? What hells have you witnessed?”

“Well, nothing really. All of my classes are pretty standard so far,” Minghao says, taking a swig of his soda. There were nods and almost impressed faces all around. Junior year was hell year, everybody knew that, but leave it to Minghao to not sweat it at all. Even if Seungkwan was the smartest among them, Minghao was definitely the hardest worker. “Oh, well, I sit in front of Wen Junhui in physio, so that’s interesting.”

The entire group goes silent, prompting Minghao to look at them. Four sets of eyes are looking at him intently, as if waiting for him to follow up with something.

“...what?” Minghao breaks the silence.

“I’m just, like, surprised you haven’t been gutted or something,” Soonyoung replies. 

“I didn’t even know he still went here. I was sure he would have been expelled for something by now,” Mingyu says, hot breath reeking of cool ranch. Mingyu was one of Minghao’s closest friends, but dear lord, this guy had no idea what etiquette was. Minghao wasn’t even sure if his friend could spell it.

Minghao looks at his friends, waiting for their concerned looks to crack and show that they were just joking, but the other boys’ faces didn’t budge. “I mean, I didn’t think he was that bad. He just looks a little scary,” Minghao offered. Although his first impression of Jun wasn’t the greatest, he was sure the guy wasn’t that bad. He didn’t try to strangle Minghao on sight, so that was comforting. Kinda.

“I mean, you have to assume that everything people say about him has some sort of substance,” Seungkwan says. Minghao was almost surprised at how notorious Jun was. Even Seungkwan, somebody two years younger knew of him. “And like, no offense or anything, but the dude looks like the personification of the word ‘murder’.”

“You guys do know I’m his partner for the rest of the year right? You’re not making me feel any better about this.”

“Sorry bro, but it’s the truth. That guy is bad news, and you know it.” Such great friends Minghao had.

As much as he didn’t want to admit it, he knew they were right. Rumors about people don’t spread for no reason. There had to have been some time somebody caught him doing something that he’s been accused of. Minghao took a spoonful of rice and veggies, wondering if it’s too late to transfer out of physiology.

It was. He checked. 

Weeks went by and it seemed like things were going relatively smoothly in the class. Thankfully Mrs. So had yet to ask her students to utilize the partner system for anything. A majority of the assignments so far were just to read chapters or complete a simple worksheet, which Minghao usually finished fast enough to let him study for other classes.

Jun was pretty silent the whole time, never really bothering Minghao. The way that they were sitting allowed Minghao to, for lack of a better term, ignore Jun for most of the time. Really, the only interaction that they had was when Jun asked for a pen once. When the rare occasion came when Minghao did turn around, he often saw Jun with his head on the desk, taking a happy nap. 

Minghao’s met some interesting people in this class, though. The seats around him were inhabited by more students just looking to get their science credits, just like he was. 

To his left were partners Jihoon and Wonwoo, both seniors. They were pretty quiet at first, but eventually they opened up to Minghao, and the soft-spoken duo proved to be pretty witty and a good time. To his right was a sophomore named Hansol that looked a lot older than he was, but acted a lot younger than he looked. Minghao enjoyed his personality though; he was probably the most relaxed person that he had ever met. Unfortunately, his partner never came to school, but he never really complained about it. The four of them formed a bit of a squad in the class, always helping each other with work, and when they were done with that, they would talk about pretty much anything.

“Okay, listen. I’m just saying. The twenty one pilots album isn’t  _ that _ good.”

“Hansol, I think you just gave me another reason to want to kill you,” Jihoon bites playfully. “Their lyricism is second to none, how dare you.”

“Oh come on, it’s basic angsty teenager stuff.”

“Nothing wrong with that,” Wonwoo chimes in.

“No, there isn’t. They’re too overhyped. The dude isn’t even a good singer.”

“You know what’s overhyped? Hamilton,” Jihoon said with the slightest look of wickedness in his eyes, and Minghao was surprised he was even able to catch it. 

Hansol slams his table and stands up, an angry finger at Jihoon. “You’re lying and you know it! You take that back, Lee Jihoon!”

The four of them start to laugh, reveling in their childish banter. These guys made Minghao think that Physiology wasn’t so bad. They already told him if he ever needed any help with anything, that they would be able to help. The four of them promised to pass the class together, and Minghao liked the sound of that. 

Despite Mrs. So’s philosophy of emphasizing working with other people, the amount of solo work that needed to be done was astounding. There was an average of a half hour, usually more, load of homework every day, along with assigned reading over the weekend that nobody really did anyway. When they would need to turn in homework to the front of the class, Jun would rarely send anything forward. When he did, it was chicken scratch and incomplete. Sometimes Minghao felt bad. Maybe all Jun needed was some help to do his work, some motivation. Minghao would offer his assistance, but he was admittedly still a little terrified of the senior, still wary of all of his actions.

Physiology started to prove to be an extremely demanding course. Even though Mrs. So was such a light-hearted person, Minghao was convinced that he has never met a teacher that graded as hard as she did. He remembers losing points for spelling “cardiopulmonary resuscitation” incorrectly, missing only a single, silent letter. Eventually his stress and frustration started coming from the letter of his grade, and not one from a medical term.

“Clear your desks, kids! It’s time for a pop quiz!”

Minghao’s heart drops. It was nearing the end of October, with the leaves becoming scarce on trees and the rain starting to roll in. It’s been almost twelve weeks into school, and not once, until now, has Mrs. So ever betrayed him like this.

She had never had a pop quiz before, and what makes it even worse was the fact that Minghao had been busy studying for other classes to have even started on anything in this chapter. Panic rang through his body as a half sheet of paper with ten blank spots slid onto his desk.

Minghao pretty much blanked out for a good six minutes, where apparently Mrs. So asked questions about vocabulary words that they had to identify. When Minghao came back to reality, he looked down at his empty paper and almost started to cry. 

“Okay, everybody! Give that paper to your partner for them to correct for you.”

Great. Peer corrections. Now somebody else could know how stupid Minghao was. And of all people, it had to be Jun, the person that he’s been comparing himself to to make himself feel like a good student. He wasn’t necessarily proud of that, and truthfully it kinda made him feel like a dick, but he couldn’t help himself. 

Jun slides his paper onto Minghao’s desk, and Minghao hangs the paper over his head, not finding it in him to be able to look at Jun in the eyes. He was ashamed of himself, but he wasn’t going to let anybody know that. 

Mrs. So goes over the answers, one by one, and the class groans at every single one of them. At least Minghao could find comfort in that he wasn’t going to be the only one to fail. After finishing up, she tells the students to return the papers so that people could see what they got before turning it into the front. 

Minghao didn’t even realize until he was about to return the test that Jun got seven of the ten correct. The average, from what he heard around the class, was about two.

He was a little dumbfounded. Did Jun cheat? No, if he cheated, he would have gotten more correct. Minghao had never seen his exam scores since typically Mrs. So corrected them. Were his scores always this good? Did he actually study?

Minghao handed the paper back to him, turning around this time. His face was, as always, showing an expression of indifference. He took the paper, looked at the score, and didn’t even flinch, instead just sliding Minghao’s paper back over to him, face down.

Flipping it over and turning back to the front of the class, Minghao saw the paper and he saw what he knew he would: a big fat zero on the top of the page. Before he begins to mourn his grade, he looks closer at his paper and notices something.

There was a small note, a message, written under the score. In all lower case letters in somewhat messy writing, read:

“it’s okay, you’ll do better next time!!” Right next to it was a smiley face and a thumbs up drawn. 

Minghao was slightly taken aback by this. The message was really… cute. Too cute. Like, there is no way in any universe that the person sitting behind him, Wen Junhui,  _ the _ Wen Junhui, scribbled it on his paper. There had to be something wrong here. 

When he checked, though, he saw that Jun’s name was at the bottom, indicating that he was, in fact, the one that corrected it, meaning that there was nobody else that would have written the little message on the paper.

Minghao spent a good thirty seconds trying to put the image of stoic, hardened Jun drawing the little smiley face, and he couldn’t do it. The thing had a stupid little button nose and its eyes were just far enough to make it look ridiculous. There was just no way. 

The only explanation, Minghao concluded, was that maybe Jun wasn’t like what people said he was. The little message and probably the highest score in the class didn’t line up to the image that Jun had, the one that people had made for him. It got Minghao curious. There’s no way that the edgy outcast kid that barely spoke a word was actually, in reality, a big softie. Minghao kind of wanted to find out.

“Well, taking into consideration all of your noises of despair, I guess now’s a better time than any to assign your project. If you do well on it, you’ll be able to recover your grade,” Mrs. So said with her smile that never seemed to fade. “It’s going to be a collaborative project with your partner, your first one. It won’t be due for a while, but I’m going to assign it early so that you can get more of a chance to do even better on it.” 

Bless her for opening a door that Minghao was scratching at, maybe he could forgive her for the pop quiz. Now he and Jun had to spend time together, so he could get another look at just who this guy was in reality, and not just what gossip told him.

Minghao turned to Jun again, with a genuine smile. For some reason, the fear that Minghao had before seemed to be gone for at least a little bit. 

“Hey, I never got your contact information. Can you text?” A nod was the response, and Minghao took out his phone, giving it to Jun to punch in his number. Once he gets it back, Minghao sends a message immediately to give Jun his number too.

 

**_To: Jun_ **

_ Hey partner. :) _

**_From: Jun_ **

_ hey _

 

Minghao looked up and gave a thumbs up to Jun, who nodded again without an ounce of emotion. Turning back around, Minghao frowned a little. Jun may be a little be harder to crack than he thought.

He had a feeling in the back of his head, telling him that he was really only getting his hopes up, only to inevitably be disappointed in the end. He started to imagine accidentally offending Jun, who would proceed to kill him, landing the older guy that draws little smiley faces on papers in jail and sweet, gentle Minghao in a coffin. 

But there was still the chance that Jun was just somebody whose cover was judged by too many, like a novel that nobody had bothered to pick up yet. Not because they weren’t interested - more so that they were intimidated and worried that they wouldn’t be able to understand what they were reading. Minghao, however, was determined. 

If he was being honest, though, his main concern was if Jun was going to be able to help him understand this chapter, maybe save his grade. If the senior did end up killing him, the bright side would be that he wouldn’t have to worry about keeping his grade point average anymore. 

To some degree, he would still think that Jun was a nice person for doing that. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> weow done with chapter 1 already... now we can all wait together to see when I'm gonna update bc of my sporadic writing schedule lol


	2. so my best friend is dumb, but that's okay

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "Stupid" and "Mingyu" having the same amount of letters is hardly a coincidence, according to Minghao.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> wow!!! who would have thought that I would actually come back?? This proves that I'm not as bad with commitment as I thought I was.
> 
> That doesn't mean that I'm necessarily good at it either, though. LOL
> 
> Anyways, here's chapter 2!

Minghao really didn’t like the idea of going to the gym. 

He was wearing a tank top with straps too thin and shorts that he didn’t notice were too small, rode too far up his legs. He felt like shorts were too short if you could see knees, and unfortunately, that’s right where this pair ended. 

On top of that, his body wasn’t much to be proud of. He wasn’t out of shape, but he wasn’t exactly in it either. Though not exactly small and weak, he was sinewy at best - any muscle that he had wasn’t something that he necessarily worked to get, rather it was there from the (barely any) physical activity that he partook in PE last year. For the most part, he just looked kind of scrawny, his skin was pulled taut against the muscle that his body had by default.

What also didn’t help was the fact that he was standing next to Mingyu, who was definitely easy on the eyes. The guy fit the definition of  _ statuesque _ almost to a T; he was unfairly tall, gorgeously bronzed and perfectly proportionate. He didn’t have much muscle either, but had small hints of it here and there, just enough, almost like it was like another effortless aspect of his attractiveness.

Standing next to him made Minghao’s self-confidence waver a bit, if he was going to be honest. It’s a good thing Mingyu was stupid, or he would feel inferior in every single aspect he could think of right now. 

Was he a bad friend for calling Mingyu stupid? Probably. But it was  _ because  _ Mingyu was stupid that Minghao was in this situation in the first place.

  
  


“Gym?”

“Yes, the gym.” Mingyu had called Minghao late yesterday, and since nobody really ever calls anybody anymore, Minghao thought that this was going to be an emergency.

However, he should have thought about it. It was Mingyu. He thinks that running out of hair gel is an emergency.

“Why do you suddenly want to go to the gym?”

“It’s the time and age where we need to start to look good for the ladies, so we gotta buff up, Hao.”

“I’m not entirely sure that it’s really-”

“Bro. Come on. Don’t you think you’ve been single for long enough?”

“Not really? I mean, I’m perfectly fine being by myself.”

Mingyu groans. “You’re like, totally not being cool right now.”

“...this isn’t part of some ploy for you to get at that girl in your physics class, is it?”

“And so what if it is?”

“Mingyu…”

“What? She’s really hot okay?” he replies, sounding almost as if he was being accused of something sinister.

“She told you to stay away from her, so I really think that it’s best to do so. It’d be a total dick move if you didn’t. Also, I thought you would have moved on to somebody else by now.” Minghao was genuinely surprised. It’s been two whole months that Mingyu’s been pining after this girl. That’s probably a new record. 

Mingyu mumbles something in return, and knowing him, it was only him just bitterly agreeing with his friend.

“Plus, I think you look fine the way you do now. You don’t need to do much to get girls to go head over heels for you,” Minghao reassures, using the Best Friend Voice that he used whenever Mingyu was feeling down.

“Thanks, Minghao. It’s only too bad that I already signed us both up for a month-long free trial.”

Minghao blinks, needing to process what he had just heard. “You signed me up for a gym membership? Without my permission? How did you even open an account for somebody that wasn’t there?”

“It was a girl at the counter. You were right, I didn’t need to do anything to get her to comply,” Mingyu says, and Minghao swears he can  _ feel _ the cocky grin that his friend has on his face.

“Okay, okay. It’s only a free trial right? I don’t actually have to go, do I?”

“Yeah, that’s what I was thinking too, but I’m on their website right now and it says that even though it’s a free one-month trial, you have to go at least once, or you have to pay for the month as a member.”

“What kind of bullshit is that?”

“Dunno. Think it has something to do with only letting a few people into the gym, so they have to have everybody that signs up make use of their time to make up the money that they might lose.”

“That makes sense. It’s stupid, but it makes sense.” Minghao sighs and pinches the bridge of his nose. “Well, I guess there’s no way out of it.”

“Are you free tomorrow?”

“Yeah, just come pick me up.”

“Okay, I’ll be there at five.”

“And Gyu?”

“Yes, Hao?”

“I fucking hate you.”

 

Stupid. Absolutely idiotic. Minghao doesn’t know why he’s still friends with this guy. Maybe it was out of pity. Mingyu would be lost without him. Minghao thinks, only half-jokingly, that Mingyu may have gone through his entire life thinking that you could actually get lead poisoning by stabbing yourself with a pencil. 

No matter that, though, because there they were now, together in a situation that he at least hoped that the both of them didn’t want to be in equally. Mingyu, however, seemed to enjoy the fact that there were more girls than he can count on one hand that were looking at him before he was even doing anything besides  _ existing _ . 

Whatever, Minghao thought, he was going to make the most out of the time he was forced to have here, no matter the antics of his best “friend”.

Earlier, he had asked to get more information about the whole thing, finding out that they had to stay there for two hours at the minimum for it to counted as a legitimate session. He sighed to himself, asking the front desk how much it would be to pay for the one-month membership.

“Oh, that’ll be $300.”

“Ex-excuse me?”

The guy at the front was as nice as you could act when you’re committing straight thievery, explaining that the price of the membership starts to go down after members prove that they’re “loyal”.

He had no choice but to go on with it. He wasn’t about to spend unnecessary money, especially that much, on something he didn’t even want.  _ Thanks Mingyu. _

The two left the locker room together, leaving their phones, wallets, and other belongings in the same locker, because apparently people who use the free membership aren’t given a locker to use with their plan. Minghao wondered, just how much would a locker cost?

“Too damn much,” was the answer the receptionist dude gave. Not exactly, but that’s essentially what he said, even if he was smiling the entire time. Minghao literally emptied his wallet just to help pay for it with Mingyu. He was upset at that. He wanted to get a smoothie after his workout. That was a thing that people did, right?

Walking around, he looks around to see what he could even do. He arrives at a wall with a mirror and rows of dumbbells, some newer and in better condition than others. At the end of wall, Minghao sees some guy with bulging arms drenched in sweat, holding probably the heaviest possible weights with no apparent struggle. As he came closer, Minghao could hear the guy blasting heavy metal music through his earphones as well as whispering some iteration of “you look so fucking hot” to himself.

Concerned for his safety (and partly his image), Minghao decided to stay away from that. He made his way over to find what he assumed to be the cardio section, where he could look over and find a sea of treadmills, ellipticals, even one of those expensive stairmasters that he’d seen on TV when he was younger. The high membership fee started to make sense now; this place seemed pretty top-notch.

Minghao shyly walks over to one of the treadmills and fumbles with the controls a bit before he finds out exactly how to use it. Deciding to start at a mild pace, he begins his sad excuse for exercise. He didn’t expect to be doing anything else for the next two hours, so he wanted to be as comfortable as possible. 

A good, peaceful hour and a half passes with Minghao just walking and walking. He thought about picking up the speed just a little bit, just to challenge himself, but ultimately chooses against it. There was a TV in the corner of the room playing some old sitcoms that Minghao thought was pretty funny, good enough entertainment for him. He could feel himself getting just the slightest bit sore, but he didn’t mind it at all. If anything, it was an almost refreshing feeling. It was a satisfying burn that he kind of missed from PE. He was admittedly enjoying himself, actually thinking about how he might come back here sometime, make good use of that free month that he had. 

Unfortunately, again, Mingyu decides to be himself - which was an idiot. An idiot that had the incredible ability to drag Minghao into all of the trouble that he got himself into.

“Hao! Minghao!”

He snaps his head over to see Mingyu laying down at a bench press, a bar above his body with weights on the sides that were very obviously too heavy. His arms were locked at the elbow, straight up, shaking slightly. There was a look of panic on his face that prompted Minghao to run over as fast as he could. Before he could make it, the bar falls, nearly slamming onto Mingyu’s chest. He’s still holding it up, only barely saving himself from self-applied suffocation.

“What were you doing without a spotter?”

“Spotters are for pussies, man!”

Minghao tries to find a position where he could best grab the bar, but the pained expression on Mingyu’s face forces him to start getting it off of him immediately. 

“I just wanted to look good, I’m an idiot, Imanidiot, Iman _ idiot _ ,” spills out of him like rapidfire, his voice airy. 

“Yes, yes, I know, now fucking  _ push _ ,” Minghao spits, trying to lift up the weight with their combined efforts. They managed to get it up about an inch and a half before Mingyu’s arms give out, crushing his chest. Minghao thinks he tried to yell out in pain, but the only thing that comes out is a strained cough.

There’s no help coming from Mingyu anymore. Minghao can tell from the way his arms were bent that he wouldn’t be able to push the bar, no matter how much he tried. On top of that, he was more than likely scared for his life. Death by gym equipment probably wasn’t the best way to go.

There are a million thoughts rushing through Minghao’s mind right now - how they never would have been in this position if Mingyu had never signed them up for the stupid membership, how he got himself like this because he wanted to look good for people he might have thought were looking, how he was really, truly the world’s biggest idiot, but also Minghao’s best friend, and he would be damned before he was going to let him die right here.

Minghao tried his best to lift the bar all on is own, putting every fiber of his being into saving his friend, but since he couldn’t do it even with Mingyu’s help, there was a fat chance that he was going to do it now. He looks at his pencil thin arms, then into Mingyu’s eyes, with a feeling of some terrible mix of pity and sadness, helplessness starting to make his body give out.

Out of nowhere, a pair of arms reach out from behind Minghao’s back and grabs ahold of the bar. 

“On three, okay?” A low, rough voice breathes into Minghao’s ear, and it scares him a bit, but there was something comforting about it. There was no urgency in his tone, as if he had everything under control. 

The person counts, and they lift the bar together. Either Minghao was just steeled by the person’s demeanor or this dude was just really, really strong, because the bar was lifted off of Mingyu with barely any effort. Mingyu coughs and rubs his chest as Minghao helps the other person put the weight back on its rack. Mingyu looks a little shaken, but he’s going to be okay. Oh, thank god, he’s going to be okay.

Minghao turns around, ready to douse the stranger in a shower of thanks, but his smile dies on his face when he turns to see a very familiar bored expression. 

Even after an act of heroism, Jun’s typical face of disinterestedness didn’t budge in the slightest. It was almost impressive, Minghao thought, how he could make everything seem less important than it actually was. He just saved Mingyu, and yet every detail of his visage was so flat, so unbothered by everything that just happened. Combined with the tone of his voice from earlier, his expression made Minghao think as if Jun did things like this on the regular.

It wasn’t until now that Minghao had notices that he had been pretty much just staring at Jun, and he immediately became flustered.

“I-I-uh-thanks. F-for that.” He doesn’t mean to stutter, but he realizes all too suddenly that 1) he was standing, like, less than a footstep away from him, and 2) Jun’s arms were still on the bar, essentially trapping Minghao in this position, meaning that if he wanted to, he could totally just deck him.

Not that he had a reason to, or anything. It’s just, if he wanted to, he could. 

“I-I don’t think I would have been able to do that myself.” Minghao curses himself for sounding like an idiot.

Jun simply nods, only nods in response before letting go of the bar and walking away. Minghao sees him round a corner to somewhere in the gym that he hadn’t seen yet, only stopping his gaze when he’s sure his lab partner wouldn’t come back. He lets out a breath, relief rushing through him. Suddenly out of his trance, he remembers he had other things to be concerned about. 

“Gyu?” 

“Yeah, I’m here.” Mingyu had turned and sat up, looking at the floor with his hands on his elbows. 

“Are you okay?”

There’s a pause. Minghao assumes Mingyu was collecting himself a little. “Yeah. Yeah, I think I am.”

“Okay, good. You’re a fucking fool.”

Mingyu chuckles. “Yeah, I am.”

Now that his head was clear, Minghao realizes that Mingyu was likely not mortal danger after all. Maybe it was the adrenaline pumping titles of articles in his head that read “Man Dies From Freak Accident In Gym” that made him worry so much.

The two decided it was best to just take it easy from then on, so the both of them began to explore the other areas of the gym. They stumble upon the yoga room soon enough, and being the high school boys that they were, they stayed, or Mingyu insisted they stay at least for a little bit. 

It seemed to make Mingyu very happy, seeing as there was an abundance of girls in skintight pants doing all kinds of stretches that he could ogle at. Minghao knew better than to even try to scold him. Nothing was going to stop the equivalent of a kid peeking in a candy shop. 

“Don’t you think it’s a little weird? And like, morally incorrect? To be doing this?” he tried in an attempt to make him at least feel a little guilty for his perviness.

“Nah, dude. I heard from somebody that it’s a one-way mirror. We can see them, they can’t see us.” 

Minghao makes a face before he leaves his friend, who would only occasionally look around him to see if anybody was catching him in such a dishonorable moment. There was a little bit of shame in the back of Minghao’s head, but he just laughs it off. It was Mingyu’s life, after all. It was up to him if he wanted to use it being gross. 

Wandering off on his own, Minghao begins to see just how expansive this place really was. Of course, there was the general area that he and Mingyu were in for a majority of the time there, but the deeper he goes in, the more rooms, exercise equipment, and people he sees. There was even an indoor pool that he had no idea could even fit in here.

He winds up at a room that he thinks is all the way in the back, with a label on the door with gilded letters that read “Martial Arts”. There’s a pleasant rush of childhood memories that comes to him. He used to take martial arts classes before high school, before things got too busy. He doesn’t recall much other than he had a lot of fun doing it, and that was enough to light some sort of childlike curiosity within him.

There was music blasting that he could hear even from behind the wall. Looking through the glass, he sees only a few people in there, doing their own thing. There seemed to be a boxing match between two dudes with shoulders so broad that a plane could land on their backs, looking so top-heavy Minghao thinks that they would have to wobble around in place of walking. There was also a woman jumping rope with such an intensity that Minghao feels that if she messed up, she could execute herself with a nylon guillotine. 

The last person in there is the one that Minghao actually takes a second to look back at. It’s Jun, he notices, almost immediately. He was beating on a punching bag with a frown on his face, pounding on it with bare fists and quick jabs. Minghao can’t help but stare. 

It was almost mesmerizing, honestly. There was so much power and more than likely some sort of underlying stress that Jun was letting loose. He was actually showing some kind of emotion for once, albeit not a good one. Minghao assumed before due to his physique that Jun worked out, but he never would have thought to run into him at the gym. On that same vein, he never would have thought to see his typically stationary classmate sweat as much as he was now. Minghao couldn’t imagine seeing Jun exerting any effort, really. 

It made sense, though. If he really got into as many fights as people say he did, he would need to at least be able to hold his own. Maybe that’s what he was working on here. 

Minghao realizes he was zoning out, popping back into reality with a small shake of the head. Looking back, he sees Jun propped up against the punching bag trying to catch his breath and wiping the sweat off of his forehead.

As well as staring and Minghao dead in the eyes.

It was almost like those dumb jump-scares that Mingyu would send him from time to time. Minghao felt his blood freeze over, standing still in the face of imminent danger, unable to move like a deer in headlights. He becomes aware that he was, in fact, just standing in the hallway, gazing into the room without a reason other than he was watching people exercise. He would look at somebody and think that they were weird if he saw them doing that too.

Thankfully, he remembers that there was the glass in between them, remembers what Mingyu said. There was no way that he was  _ actually _ being glared at by Jun. 

That was a dodged bullet, really. By the way that he was pummeling that punching bag, Minghao knew that he didn’t stand a chance, and was really not fond of the idea that he would become Jun’s new target.

The senior had been looking in Minghao’s general direction for a good while now, probably zoning out himself. Minghao could relate. He couldn’t count the amount of times that he’s accidentally stared at somebody in class when he was actually just thinking. He remembers being yelled at for looking at a girl’s chest when he was really only thinking of what to make for dinner that day.

Jun had a look in his eyes, only in his eyes, something stating that it was something a little more than just simple pondering. He looked confused, bothered by something. 

Soon enough though, he starts to move again, and Minghao can tell that he’s about to leave the room. An alarm that goes off in Minghao’s head, telling him to get moving, because he didn’t want to actually be caught just waiting outside. 

He makes his way back to the area where he left Mingyu, only to realize that he was nowhere to be found. Minghao mentally hits himself on the forehead. He should have known better than to leave Mingyu alone in a place as big as this.

He walks around, checking every area that he had passed already, even checking back at the bench press that almost crushed his best friend. “Going back for revenge” sounded stupid enough for Mingyu. 

While his main concern was to find Mingyu, there was a sensation that Minghao felt down in his core that made it so that he didn’t want to run into Jun again. Yes, it was true, he wanted to get to know the guy better, but preferably in a place that he was familiar with, a place he was comfortable with, and a place where he knew where the closest possible exit was so that he could run for his life if need be. 

Alas, he wasn’t there, and Minghao was tired, so he just headed to the locker room, hoping that he might see him doing something stupid like staring at himself shirtless in front of the mirror. 

It carried the same industrialist theme that the majority of the gym had, but the lighting in here was just slightly more dim. The air was a little more musty, the smell of sweat and deodorants that were too strong filled Minghao’s nostrils, making him gag only slightly. 

He looks through every row of lockers, even looking to the showers, just in case Mingyu was hiding out in here for some reason, coming up with nothing. He sighs, thinking it would be best to go over to the locker that he and Mingyu had rented and just get ready to leave this place.

Upon reaching the aisle, Minghao comes to the conclusion that any and all of the mystical forces that controlled the fate of the world had some sort of grudge on him, because as luck would have it, the person that he’s been trying to avoid was standing right next to his locker.

Jun was busy on his phone, sitting down on the bench in the middle of the aisle. He looked too occupied to notice Minghao was there, but he didn’t look like he was going anywhere anytime soon. Minghao stands and wonders if he  _ really _ needs to get his things. 

Unfortunately, he must have stood there for just a little bit too long, because Jun looks up and turns his head to look at him. 

“Do you have a problem with me or something?” he sighs.

“W-what?” Minghao is taken off guard. First of all, he didn’t feel as if he had done anything for Jun to think that. Secondly, he hadn’t ever heard Jun speak more than one word at a time. Up until now, Minghao thought that Jun’s vocal vocabulary was limited to “yeah” and “okay”. 

“I mean, it really seems that you have something against me, since every time I turn my head, I see you there.” Jun gets up and begins walking over to Minghao, fists clenched, and Minghao almost wets himself.

The smaller boy steps backward, not stopping until he hits the wall behind him with a soft grunt. In some terrible rendition of any kid-gets-beat-up scene from a movie, Jun grips the collar of his loose tank top in a tight fist, pushing him up further against the wall. He turns his head to avoid looking his soon-to-be assailant in the eyes.

“I-I-I was just g-getting to my locker, man,” Minghao sputters out like a dying engine, words getting quieter and falling off of his lips. 

“See, I would understand that, but it’s really starting to seem that you’re chasing me around here,” Jun breathes. 

“W-what do you mean?” Minghao was shaking. Maybe it was because the locker room was kind of cold, probably because he was a little scared. Jun was so relaxed. He didn’t seem to put any effort into intimidating Minghao, and that alone was almost enough to do the job.

“Did you really think I wasn’t going to notice you  _ checking me out _ in the hall?”

“I wasn’t checking you out,” Minghao gulps, feeling the heat of the beads of sweat on his head come out with the intensity of a thousand suns. He really didn’t mean to. He just happened to zone out facing Jun’s general direction. At least that’s what he tells himself. There wasn’t much of an excuse for watching him go off on the punching bag before that. “My friend told me that they were one-way mirrors.”

Jun makes a noise that Minghao thinks is supposed to be a chuckle, but it doesn’t seem like there was anything happy behind it. “Your friend? You mean the one on the bench press?”

_ Sadly, yes, _ Minghao says to himself.

“No offense or anything, but I think I’m going to be safe saying that he isn’t the sharpest tool in the shed.”

“Yeah, no, he’s kinda dumb. I would call him a hammer or something, but I think that those are more useful than he is.”

Jun exhales through his nose, the universal action for “wow-that-was-pretty-funny-but-not-enough-to-laugh-funny”, and Minghao peeks over to see a soft grin on his face. He moves in and pushes his chest against Minghao’s, the only thing blocking them from touching entirely was his fist in between them, which had a much lighter grip than before.

Minghao can feel himself start to heat up just a bit, suddenly very shy. Jun’s tone was so gentle, almost calming. Minghao couldn’t move a muscle; the only way that he knew that he was still breathing was the way that he could smell Jun, who, even after an intense workout, didn’t smell very bad at all. 

Being so close to Jun let him take in more of his features, things that Minghao hadn’t noticed before. There were a few scars from typical teenage acne that lay sporadically across his face, though they were faded and almost indistinguishable. Jun was definitely mature, Minghao noted - there were traces of stubble above his small lips and on his chin. At the same time, though, he looked young, baby-faced, almost. His face was lean, but the angles were soft and smooth, and his eyes were just a little too big, something that Minghao noticed when his scowl wasn’t as intimidating as it should have been.

Oh my  _ god,  _ Minghao thinks he’s kind of  _ cute _ .

“You really have a thing for staring, don’t you?”

Minghao tenses. He didn’t realize he was looking at (admiring, admittedly) Jun again.

“I-I do it when I’m nervous.” Not totally a lie. 

Jun smiles, but not one of happiness. More like he was amused by Minghao’s behavior. Either way though, Minghao can’t help but feel a burn in his chest that tells him, “that is a quality smile.” Minghao can only imagine what it would look like when he’s actually happy.

The older boy leans in and turns faces Minghao. Feeling Jun’s breath on his ear, he shudders, almost squirms.

“I really suggest that you stop looking at me like that. I don’t want to stoop so low as to beat the shit out of somebody as pathetic as  _ you _ ,” he whispers, and there’s an iciness in his voice that travels from Minghao’s ear all throughout his bloodstream.

Just as Minghao had processed his words, Jun let go of his shirt and started to walk towards the exit. Minghao stays still, keeping in his head that warning he heard when he was younger, the one where you’re not supposed to make any sudden movements around dangerous animals. He hears the door close before he takes a breath again. 

Okay, it was official. Minghao was on Jun’s hitlist. He has successfully pissed off the scariest guy in school.

That wasn’t the scariest thing though. His mind travels back to Jun’s face, so close to his. The more he thinks about it, the more he wants to hold Jun’s face in both of his hands, maybe see that smile again. 

No, no. He can’t do this. Jun was just his physiology lab partner, nothing more. They barely even knew each other. Today was literally the most that they had ever spoken to each other, and like 90% of it was Jun scaring Minghao shitless. 

As much as he wanted to try to convince himself, though, Minghao knew himself well, and when somebody can worm their way into his heart the way that Jun just did, even with his threats and rather violent actions, it means Minghao is fucked. 

Whether it be catching feelings or catching hands, Jun has Minghao royally, terribly fucked. 

Quickly, he opens his locker, shoves everything in there into his pockets and slams the door shut. Walking out of the locker room, he runs into Mingyu, and for the first time in Minghao thinks ever, he’s relieved to see him. 

Minghao almost starts to yell at him for providing him misinformation about the “mirrors” in the gym, but before he can say anything, he sees a rather large and irritated hand mark on his friend’s left cheek and a bag of ice in his hand. 

“I… found out that the one-way mirror thing was a joke. To catch perverts.”

“Holy shit, was she wearing a ring?” Minghao can’t help but snicker.

“...yeah. Let’s just go.”

On the way out, they walk by the yoga room again, and Mingyu hangs his head low as a cacophony of catcalls from the women inside are directed at him. He begins to blush, raising his hand to soothe the slap mark. Minghao stifles laughter to not make Mingyu feel worse about himself.

“I’m really dumb, aren’t I, Minghao?” he says in a sad voice.

“Yeah, a bit. But don’t worry about that. That doesn’t make you any less of a best friend of mine,” Minghao says, whipping out his Best Friend Voice again.

“Thanks, Minghao. I don’t know what I’d do without you.”

“No probl-”

“No homo.”

“...I can’t believe you’re still saying that.”

“I’ll stop saying it when I feel some homo. That’s how it works, Hao. Get with the program.”

Minghao sighs loudly. Stupid. Absolutely idiotic.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I feel kinda bad that I uploaded a chapter essentially highlighting the fact that Mingyu (at least this version of him) isn't the brightest on his birthday. Don't get me wrong, I love the guy LOL
> 
> #happymingyuday !!! ^^"


	3. so you're cool, we're cool (i think)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Minghao breaks down some walls and sees some new sides to Jun.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hello!! i am back!! my updates seem to be about a month apart so far, but since I'm graduating soon I can start to focus more on writing over my break (if i don't get too busy with summer activities B) )

There seems to be a universal understanding the Monday is the worst day of the week, but Minghao thinks he can give one hell of an argument for Tuesday.

Maybe it was just him, but Tuesdays were like a knee to the balls. Monday was hard for sure, but at least you get an entire weekend to get ready for it. Tuesday is just there to trip you up, make you realize that yes, the working week is actually here, welcome to only the second day, motherfucker. What made it even worse was that Monday was the day that teachers gave out homework to compensate for something that they forgot to assign the week prior.

That’s most of the reason why Minghao had fallen asleep in his Pre-Calculus class on this fine, terrible Tuesday.

“Are you okay?”

Minghao lifts his head off of his desk. He didn’t like to doze off, since he found it disrespectful to the teacher, but thankfully, this one didn’t really care that much. Every day would be a lecture and then time for students to do their homework in class after he was done. After a yawn, Minghao wipes his eyes and looks around for the source of the voice, finding Wonwoo with concern on his face.

“Yeah, I’m fine. Just a little tired,” Minghao replies, stretching as much as he can in his chair.

“Ah, sorry. I thought you were feeling down or something, not sleeping.” Wonwoo was the teacher’s aide for this class, meaning all he really did was grade some papers and go on his phone. Occasionally, when the other students were having trouble with the work, they would go to Wonwoo instead of the teacher, since he was easier to talk to, leaving the teacher alone to do his own business. This lead to him getting on the teacher’s good side, even getting some free lunch that the teacher would bring in for him sometimes.

Wonwoo usually left Minghao alone to do his work, and Minghao was grateful for that. He considers Wonwoo a friend, but he would be lying if he said that he didn’t feel at least a little awkward with the senior. Wonwoo didn’t talk very much, so that made it kind of hard for Minghao to really open up to him, but Minghao knew that he meant well.

“It’s okay, I think I should be studying for physio anyway. My grade is still in shambles after that last pop quiz.”

Wonwoo chuckles, mumbling a “same” before going back on his phone. Minghao almost puts his head back down to fall asleep again, despite what he just said, but Wonwoo speaks up. “Funny that you mention that, though. I did some digging around and found the website that has a database for all of the actual tests that Mrs. So uses.”

“Meaning what exactly?”

“That means,” Wonwoo leans closer to whisper, “I have all of the answers for every single test she plans to use this year.”

Minghao almost shoots up from his desk. “No way.”

“Mhm,” Wonwoo hums, and there’s a slight cockiness to his to his tone. Never would Minghao think that the apparent quiet, studious Wonwoo would be so complacent with something so _dirty_ like _cheating_. “I’m trying to keep it on the downlow, so if you didn’t tell anybody, that’d be greatly appreciated.”

“Wait, do Jihoon or Hansol know about this?”

“Nope.”

“Are you telling only me then?” Minghao is curious, almost a little suspicious. “Are you even going to give me the link to the site?”

“Yeah, of course I will. I’m only telling you because I’m expecting something in return.”

“...that sounds vaguely sexual and I don’t think I’m okay with that.”

“No, you idio-” Wonwoo sighs, jokingly massaging his temples. Minghao feels weird. Usually he isn’t the one in this position. “I just need you to give me Mingyu’s number.”

“...Mingyu?” Minghao is suddenly very curious. “Why would you want his number? Do you _want_ to lose brain cells?”

“I doubt that’s your primary concern.”

“You’re right,” Minghao says, already whipping out his phone to give Wonwoo the contact information. “What you do with him is going to be none of my business.” There couldn’t be any harm in just giving him Mingyu’s number. Wonwoo may _look_ threatening at first, but Minghao has become familiar with the concept that he’s the kind of person to clutch his chest in emotional pain when he hears the name of a significant character of a book he read ages ago, even if the topic of the conversation has no relation to the story itself.

Essentially, Wonwoo couldn’t hurt a fly. And seeing as Mingyu seems to share IQ with those things most of the time, he should be fine.

Wonwoo sends the link to him in exchange just as the bell rings for them to go to their next class, which was, funnily enough, physiology.

The walk to Mrs. So’s classroom wasn’t far at all. In fact, it was in the same hall, only a few doors down. It came in handy sometimes, like when Minghao had to go to the bathroom or copy down homework he forgot to do. The short distance between the two rooms gave Minghao enough time to settle himself and mentally prepare himself for a class with a teacher so energetic.

“Gooood morning, children!” Mrs. So beams the moment the bell rings to begin class. “Oh, is it even morning anymore? You know me, always losing track of time,” she laughs at herself. Minghao can’t help but smile. Even if she can be a little much sometimes, it’s hard to be upset when somebody seems to enjoy simply _living_ so much. “Anyways, don’t unpack your things yet. We’re going to go to the library today so you can get some work done on your projects, but more importantly, so I can catch up with my grading.” She winks, completely amused with herself. She lets herself wind down for just a second before starting up again with an “Oh! Oh, how silly of me. I haven’t even told you what your project is about yet,” she laughs again. “It’s pretty simple, honestly I’m surprised I’m giving you points that are so easy to get. All you really have to do is pick a method of physical activity, explain what part of the body it’s working out and go into detail about all of the different ways it is beneficial to your health.”

Minghao nodded to himself. That did seem pretty easy. There were a wave of ideas that came to him immediately - basketball, swimming, even something as simple as walking. It almost felt too easy, like there had to be a catch to it or someth-

“You’re going to need to present with a powerpoint at least twenty slides, with pictures and a bibliography page, along with a 3 page paper and a poster with pictures drawn, not printed, in full color by the time that this is due.”

Never mind. She announced that with such a genuine smile on her face that Minghao may think she finds joy in making children’s lives miserable.

For once this year, Minghao is grateful for the whole “collaborative effort” thing that Mrs. So implemented in her class. He was about to be happy that he wouldn’t have to do this alone before he remembered that his partner was Jun.

The thing is, they hadn’t really talked since the whole gym incident. Then again, they didn’t usually talk at all, but either way, there was still the lingering bad juju between them that Minghao really didn’t want to deal with. Unfortunately, though, unless he wanted to finish the _metric fuckton_ of work in this project all on his own, he’s going to have to talk to Jun at some point.

Everybody starts picking up their things and begins to make their way to the library, scuffling out of the classroom with small talk between most of the students.

“Hey Wonwoo,” Minghao calls as he pulls on the older boy’s arm. “Do you think that I can just skip out on doing this project and ace the rest of the tests and still get a good grade for the semester?”

Wonwoo looks up, seemingly thinking, doing some mental math. “Well, considering how your grade is rather low already, this project is essentially another test, and it’s already November, the best you’ll probably get in here is a 71%.”

Minghao feels himself at a crossroads. His grades were never that bad. He’d always had top marks in his classes, or at least somewhere near there, so it was a little worrisome for his future if his grade just dropped to that level so quickly.

The other solution would be to not only have to talk to Jun, but spend copious amounts of alone time with him as well. Alone. Time. No saviors. No witnesses. Minghao shudders in his shoes a bit when he thinks about Jun pushing him up against the wall in the locker room.

“In other words, I really suggest that you _don’t_ do that,” Wonwoo says slowly, likely noticing that Minghao was in a daze.

“I’m not entirely sure I have a choice.”

“And why is that?”

Minghao looks around, making sure that nobody was around to listen. “I just don’t know how I feel working with my partner. He, uh, kinda scares me.”

“Ah, so that’s what it is,” Wonwoo grins. “Listen, Junhui isn’t as bad as you think.”

“He likes to be called Jun.”

“He doesn’t mind with me.”

Minghao makes a face, slightly puzzled. “I didn’t know you were close to him.”

“I’m not, not really,” Wonwoo explains. “We just talk more often than a lot of people think. Sometimes quiet guys aren’t so quiet around each other, y’know.”

Minghao nods, only kind of understanding.

“So yeah, trust me. If he really didn’t like you, he would have done something by now. You’re gonna be fine.”

This makes Minghao just a little less anxious. While his most recent memory of Jun wasn’t exactly the most pleasant, he remembers the little smiley face and message that was on that damned quiz of his, acting as the single shred of hope that Jun wasn’t as murderous and violent as he made himself out to be.

The two find Hansol and Jihoon already taking one of the tables inside the library, one near the back corner of the room so that they could talk without needing to worry too much about how much noise they were making.

“So, since this project is due like, three weeks from now, I think we can chill just for today,” Hansol says, leaning back in his chair.

“Aren’t you worried at all, Hansol? I mean, you’re the one here without a partner to work with.”

“Oh, yeah, it’s fine. I already talked to Mrs. So, and we came to a compromise. I really only have to do half of the work that she told us we had to do.”

“Wow, score.”

“Yeah, I know, right? Thing is though, I’m just going to do everything she asked of us so that I look like a proactive student, or in other words, an overachieving asshole.”

“Nice. Anyways, did you guys hear about that kid that crashed his car into the fence outside? I heard he was texting and driving.”

“Oh, so that’s what happened? I heard somebody say that there was a bee in his car and he lost control,” Hansol starts, but Minghao stops paying attention. He felt a little bad just sitting around, since technically they were supposed to be working on their projects right now, and the goody two shoes in him couldn’t help but feel a little guilty for being an irresponsible student.

He looks around, finding Jun a few tables away, apparently taking a nap. Minghao sighs internally. Even if there was legitimately nobody else in the class starting on the project, the partnership between the two of them lacked even the most elementary aspect of teamwork - communication.

The lingering fear that Minghao had toward him was still in the back of his head, making his chest hurt a bit just from worrying. What was even worse, Minghao still had his… _infatuation_ (that he wanted to deny as much as possible) that would probably lead him to say something weird, something that would make him look like an utter fool in front of Jun.

This wasn’t some realization that Minghao had come across that was shocking. He was wholly confident and comfortable in his own bisexuality, so the fact that he thought a boy was attractive wasn’t something out of the ordinary. It was only the specific boy that he thought was attractive being the issue.

As concerning as that was, Minghao remembers that Wonwoo said that there was really nothing to be worried about, and there was something about that guy that was so convincing that he couldn’t help but believe him.

Fuck it.

Minghao stands, picking up his bag. “Hey guys, I’m gonna go talk to Jun.”

“Okay, have fun.”

“I.” Minghao stands for a second. “Hello? Nothing?”

“Do you expect us to congratulate you on talking to your lab partner?” Jihoon says with a frown.

“Well, not exactly, but I would think that you guys would say something like ‘oh be careful, don’t piss him off’ or something like that.”

“I already told you what I think about him,” Wonwoo replies calmly, the cool tone of his voice instantly soothing Minghao of nerves he didn’t know he was having. “The same applies to Jihoon. We’re in the same grade, we know him better than you do.”

“And no offense or anything, but _I’m_ not scared to piss off Jun. I could probably fight him,” Jihoon supplies smugly. He must have noticed that that didn’t do anything to help Minghao. “Just go, you idiot. If anything, I’ll pull him off of you.”

“He’s not going to need to do that,” Wonwoo says, lightly shoving Jihoon. “You’re going to be fine, Minghao.”

Minghao breathes, collecting himself. He starts to walk over to the table that Jun was sitting at, regret starting to pile on with every single footstep. Somehow, he gathers enough strength and willpower to ignore that, plopping himself down in the seat directly across from his partner.

Jun wasn’t napping like Minghao thought, it seemed, since as soon as he sat down, Jun got up to look at him. His classic neutral face was on display, but only for a moment before it turns to an expression of confusion.

“Can I help you with something?” is the first thing that comes out of his mouth. He sounds offended, almost.

“Why yes, yes you can. Um.” Minghao’s confidence, whatever was left of it, depleted to what he thinks was a negative level when he realizes that, in his moments of bravery walking over here, he completely forgot that he needed something to talk about to have a conversation.

“Hello?” Minghao looks up to see Jun getting increasingly annoyed, and Minghao is almost certain that if he didn’t say something right now he would be leaving this library on a gurney and Jun and Jihoon in handcuffs.

“I was just thinking that we should p-probably get to know each other a little more.” Minghao feels that stuttering is just a side effect to talking to Jun at this point. “Y’know, since we’re lab partners and don’t really talk that much.”

Jun furrows his brow, contemplating about something. Just before Minghao feels the need to bite down on his cheek to get over the awkwardness, Jun replies with an “Okay. But you go first. Tell me something about you, and I’ll tell you something about me.”

Fair enough, Minghao thought. At least Jun was going to make this easy for the both of them. “Uh, okay. First of all, my name is Xu Minghao.”

Jun scoffs. “Didn’t know we were starting off with something _that_ basic.” He sits up, his leather jacket rubbing against the chair making an unpleasant squeak. “Wen Junhui. I’m sure you knew that.” The tone in his voice was something strange. There was a thin veil of cockiness, but as for  the underlying tone, Minghao would choose “guilty” to describe it. Jun likely knew about all of the things that people have said about him around campus, knew how he was well-known for being a bad guy. It was only a little bit surprising to see that he wasn’t exactly proud of it.

“Mm.” This was a bit of a mistake, Minghao starts to realize. He’s always been bad at thinking of even just one thing that made him sound like a cool guy, especially on those ice breakers that every teacher did on the first day of school. Now he’s essentially trapped with Jun, needing to think of as many as he can to keep the conversation going. “My favorite class is history.”

“Physio,” Jun replies almost immediately. He picks up his phone again and continues his scrolling through probably some social media. Minghao is slightly offended by this not-so-subtle sign of boredom. Okay, asshole. Minghao thinks it’s time to pull out the big guns.

“I was in martial arts for five years.”

Jun looks back over. He raises an eyebrow with an “Oh? Is that why you were so interested in me at the gym?”

Minghao feels heat spread throughout his body, finding himself hoping that the rush of blood flow wasn’t evident in his face. Damn it. Even when Minghao wanted to seem impressive, Jun reduced him to a flustered mess.

“Oh, sorry sorry. You weren’t watching _me_ specifically.” Jun flashes a cocky grin. “But since you probably saw, I’m a boxer. More for… recreational purposes, really.”

“You got a hobby or something?”

“I guess you could call it that.” Jun stretches out his fingers, and Minghao wonders to himself just how many people have felt those knuckles connect with their skin.

“Yeah, I took lessons,” Minghao mumbles, still recovering from his embarrassment.

“Ooh, that’s pretty cool. Since we’re kinda on the subject anyway, I actually work at the gym.”

“Yeah, I kinda assumed that. You guys have quite the membership fee. N-not saying that you don’t look like you can afford it or anything, I just-”

“Dude, chill,” Jun chuckles. “And yeah, I know. You would think that with the amount of money that we take from people the workers would have better benefits, but our manager thinks that free membership for us is good enough. I’m not complaining, but I feel the need to go there otherwise I’m just wasting money. The pay isn’t even that good. Then again, I don’t think I’d be happy with any amount of money when I have to wipe sweat off of every machine in that place.”

Minghao nods with a smile. Jun actually putting in the effort to talk back, to respond makes him feel more comfortable. It was surprisingly easy, fluid between the two of them. “Okay, my turn.” He takes a moment to think about his response. Jun sits back up, crossing his arms, making Minghao come to the conclusion that he has successfully acquired Jun’s attention. “I’ve never had a girlfriend.”

“Neither have I.”

Minghao turns his head like a dog hearing something that didn’t make any sense. “Really? I thought that you would.”

“Why is that?”

“Because you’re pretty hands-” Minghao forces himself to cough, hoping that it sounded realistic enough to cover up the fact that he was about to call Jun _handsome_ straight to his face.

“You okay there?

“Yeah, I just, uh, choked on some spit. Anyway, what I was going to say was that you’re pretty hands-on. Like you seem like you put yourself out there and do the things that you want to do the way that you want to do it. That seems like something that girls would think is cool.” Good save.

“Mm, maybe. But I guess there’s a lot of things about me that don’t seem too cool,” Jun sighs, turning his head. There’s that guilty tone again, and Minghao feels some vulnerability, even. Jun has insecurities? This was a side of him that Minghao didn’t even think existed, let alone a side that he would ever be able to see.

“Like what?”

Jun smiles, and Minghao could tell it was a fake one. “Like the fact that I prefer pancakes over waffles.”

“...Okay, yeah, that’s a deal breaker for me. Sorry about it.” Minghao wanted to know more about the things that actually made Jun feel bad about himself, but if he wanted to change the subject, Minghao would comply.

“Oh my god, don’t tell me you’re one of them.”

“How _dare_ you insult the holy gift that are waffles like this. They’re like, perfectly crispy-”

“And that’s exactly my point,” Jun interrupts. “Fluffiness is more important in a breakfast.”

“No, no no.” Minghao was about to go off. Waffles were the _shit_. “Okay, how about syrup. Don’t you want to have nice little solid pockets of syrup that you can enjoy instead of a soggy, flabby pancake drenched in it?”

“Uh, no. Pancakes absorb the syrup, they become one with it. Every bite that you take will be syrupy heaven.”

Minghao doesn’t know how long they talk, but he knows that eventually they move off of the subject of the superior food. They go on for what feels like days, bonding over things that he wouldn’t have known that they had in common.

“You moved here from China in like, what?”

“The summer between third and fourth grade,” Jun answers. “I’ve pretty much completely lost my accent by now. I’ve been speaking English more than anything for so long now that people don’t even think for a second that I’m not native.”

“Lucky you. I had to move here in the middle of the fifth grade year,” Minghao says, and Jun cringes at that.

“That must have sucked.”

“Yeah. I knew some English but there was so much that I didn’t understand. I guess it’s cool that I’m in the same boat as you, though. I don’t really have much of an accent anymore.”

As fun as that was, it was more interesting when Minghao found himself learning things about Jun that he never would have guessed.

“Wait, okay, you’re telling me you’re scared of cats?”

“Terrified.” Jun already looks uncomfortable talking about it.

“It’s all because you had a crazy cat lady live on your street?”

“Listen, dude. She died when I was like, five, and I still see her cats around. Watching me.” Minghao struggles to hold in a laugh.

The bell rings then, and it actually made Minghao kind of sad. They had gotten really cozy around each other, Jun even taking off his black leather jacket (something that Minghao had never seen before) and laying it out on the table so he could rest his head on it. Every now and then, Jun would smile, a real one, and Minghao felt an ache in his chest that he knew was dangerous, but didn’t find it within himself to stop himself from enjoying it.

Minghao himself felt more at ease, no longer on edge or affected by an ever-present feeling that Jun was going to beat him up.

The two boys start to pick up their things, walking out of the library still talking about something that Minghao wasn’t really paying too much attention to, too bothered by the feeling in his gut that said that this was fun, that wondered if this was ever going to happen again.

Just before they part ways, Minghao shoots Jun a natural “see you later”.

What surprised him was hearing Jun’s voice in reply, a simple “yeah, I’ll talk to you soon.” Not his usual silent, blank stare without even a wave of the hand. He actually said, promised, almost, that he would talk to Minghao again sometime.

There’s a feeling in Minghao’s chest that’s some mix of happiness, pride, and excitement. He seems to have gotten on Jun’s good side, thankfully. He really wasn’t as bad as he thought he was going to be at all.

He makes his way over to his lunch table, sitting down while an ongoing conversation between Seungkwan and Seokmin seems to have reached its climax.

“And I’m telling you, the only reason that you like the smell of Play-Doh is because it reminds you of when you were younger, not because it actually smells nice.” Seungkwan was already a third of the way done with his peanut butter sandwich, a box of apple juice sitting next to him with the bendy straw pointing away. Even if Seungkwan was younger than Minghao was, he wasn’t entirely sure that was enough to excuse this elementary-school level lunch.

“But then why does everybody else think it smells nice too?” Seokmin seems to have forgotten all about his lunch, too invested within the debate to notice that his noodles were going cold.

“Because everybody else grew up with it. Smelling it brings back a sense of nostalgia and childhood, a smell that reminds you of when you were young and things were still fun. I don’t get that. I didn’t get to play with it when I was younger.”

“Then what does it smell like to you?”

Seungkwan shudders. “Chemicals.”

Seokmin nods, finally acknowledging Minghao’s existence with a smile. “Hello, Minghao. How are you doing today?”

“Pretty good actually,” Minghao returns. “I talked more to Jun today.”

Seokmin’s expression sours the moment he hears the name. Minghao grows curious. Seokmin wasn’t the type of person to really care about rumors or anything like that. Or, if he did, he wouldn’t show it on his face like this.

Seokmin must have picked up on Minghao’s thought process. He softens a little, sighing quietly. “Soonyoung’s told me some things about him.”

That makes more sense, then. Soonyoung and Seokmin were inseparable, so anything that one says would make the other believe it as if it were a fact.

“Like what?” Minghao tries, but Seokmin shakes his head.

“I’m not entirely sure he’d be okay with me talking about it, especially if he wasn’t even here.”

Almost as if he was cued, Soonyoung plops his tray of school lunch food on the table, the metal clanging against the wood. “‘Sup, fuckers? What’re we talking about?”

Seokmin starts, and the rushed smile on his face indicating he was about to change the subject for Soonyoung’s sake, but Minghao’s simple “Jun” was faster, causing Seokmin to drop his facade. He looked nervous, almost, as if he was a kid that was about to get into trouble.

“Oh,” is all the comes out of Soonyoung for a little. Usually he would be talking up a storm the moment he sits down with his friends, but it seemed that this was too heavy for him to move on from. “What about him?”

“I was just talking to him during physio, nothing big. But I brought it up and Seokmin said that you’ve said some things about him,” Minghao provides. Seokmin looks over at Soonyoung with a regretful face, but Soonyoung just smiles at him.

“It’s okay, it’s not that big a deal,” Soonyoung says simply. “I would just, really, really avoid him. As much as possible.”

“Why? He doesn’t seem that bad of a person.”

“Just trust me, Minghao.”

“I really don’t understand why, though. Is it just because of the rumors that you’ve been hearing around?” Minghao doesn’t know why he’s trying so hard to argue for Jun, but after today, he’s almost thoroughly convinced that he’s pretty alright.

“Just trust me, Minghao.” There’s a bit of sternness in his voice that Minghao had never heard before. He wasn’t even sure that Soonyoung could experience the emotion of _serious_.

“I dunno, he seems pretty okay. Because I’ve been talking to Wonwoo, a guy in your grade, and he’s pretty cool and thinks that-”

“Minghao, he mugged me.”

The air around the table becomes dry and there’s a silence between all of them that was unfamiliar, never felt before. There hadn’t been many times that there was a serious topic that was brought up, and none of those were nearly as severe as this one. On top of that, it was Soonyoung, someone generally so cheerful, that brought the mood to this.

There was a silence that Soonyoung probably read as permission to explain himself.

“Yeah, like straight up robbed me. It wasn’t too long ago, maybe a couple of weeks. I just got off of my shift at work, so it was pretty late. You guys know I don’t have a car, so usually I just walk home. I was listening to music and walking my usual route, minding my own business when I was pulled into an alley, pushed up a wall and next thing you know, a knife was put up against my face. On the other side of that knife was the star of the show, Wen Junhui. He wasn’t even wearing a mask or anything, so I guess walking around threatening people is just something natural to him. He asked me for my wallet, and at first I told him that I didn’t have any money on me, which of course he didn’t buy. After that, he just…” Soonyoung breathes for a second, trying to collect himself, obviously shaken a bit. “He started dragging the knife down the side of my face. He told me it’d be a shame to fuck up a face like mine. So I just threw it at him and he ran off.”

Minghao gulps. There’s a feeling of horror that rises up from deep inside him, suddenly realizing that those things that he’s heard about Jun may be very, very real. That he was a dangerous, dangerous person. One of his friends was a witness to that, a victim, even.

“What I don’t understand,” Soonyoung breaks the silence, “is that he and I were actually pretty cool before.”

“You knew each other?” Seungkwan asks.

“Yeah, back in freshman year. We took biology together. Sat next to each other, too. He wasn’t as much of an introvert back then, but still pretty quiet. I would joke around a lot in that class and he would laugh occasionally, mostly just smiles. There was more than one time where I forgot to do my homework and he just handed over his work for me to copy without even a word. I even gave him my number at the end of the year, and we would talk to each other from time to time, but eventually he just stopped messaging back at all, no matter how much I messaged him. It was weird. But that’s his life, I’m not gonna get into that. It was just a little sad to see somebody that seemed so chill act like that.”

Everybody around the table just fumbles with their food a little, not really eating, not really looking at each other.

“So, uh, yeah. Just stay away from him, for your own sake,” Soonyoung tries, giving a weak smile over to Minghao. “Sorry about that, you guys.” As much of a jokester as he was, Soonyoung knew that he was the oldest and had a bit of responsibility to be the most mature at times.

Suddenly, Mingyu plops down on the space next to Minghao, a half eaten bagel in his hand and a bit of sour cream on the side of his lip.

“I got my test back from Calc.”

Seokmin winces. “How bad?”

“I got .4% on it.”

“...I didn’t even think that was possible.”

“Neither did I.”

As Seungkwan starts to go over the concepts with Mingyu to see what he got wrong, Minghao notices Seokmin quietly soothing a still mildly rattled Soonyoung. There was nobody less deserving of something like this than he was. Minghao always admired his positive attitude and the way that he could make everybody around him happy. He was known around the school for being a nice person, so why would anybody want to do anything bad to him? What made it even worse was that Jun _knew_ him, knew who he was as a person.

Minghao sits and wonders exactly who Jun was. Barely an hour ago he was arguing about pancakes and waffles and confessed about a fear of cats. But Soonyoung comes out and says that Jun held him at knifepoint?

He finds himself at square one again, feeling like he’s the only person conflicted between the idea that Jun is just another quiet, scary looking guy, and the idea that he’s actually a criminal ready to fight anybody on sight.

Things were complicated.

 

Later that night, in the middle of studying, Minghao hears a ping from his phone. It was a text from Jun, somebody that he forgot even had his number.

**_From: Jun_ **

_Jun sent an attachment._

**_From: Jun_ **

_here. take some real, hard evidence of the truth_

**_To: Jun_ **

_Jun, did you just send me a Buzzfeed article with reasons on why pancakes are better than waffles?_

**_From: Jun_ **

_read em n weep kiddo_

**_To: Jun_ **

_You’re so odd xD_

**_From: Jun_ **

_ew_

**_From: Jun_ **

_dont xD me nerd_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i'm pancakes > waffles don't @ me


	4. so this is a step in the right direction

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Minghao and Jun enjoy some time together in what is totally _not _a date.__

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hello! i am back
> 
> this is my longest chapter so far and i stayed up really late writing this so if there's any mistakes pls be gentle i am a tired soul
> 
> hope you like it!!!

**_From: Jun_ **

_ey_

**_To: Jun_ **

_?_

**_From: Jun_ **

_you said you wanted to get to know each other better right_

**_To: Jun_ **

_Mhm_

**_From: Jun_ **

_well im free afterschool today_

**_From: Jun_ **

_we can hang out if you wna_

**_To: Jun_ **

_Just the two of us?_

**_From: Jun_ **

_i mean yeah_

**_From: Jun_ **

_if thats ok with you_

**_To: Jun_ **

_Sure!_

**_From: Jun_ **

_aight cool_

**_From: Jun_ **

_meet me at the student parking lot after school_

**_To: Jun_ **

_See ya then!_

 

Minghao had to muster up all of the self-control that he had within himself to maintain some stable image in front of everybody in his computer science class. Jun texting him out of nowhere was something that he still hadn’t gotten used to, and the content of the one he just received was all the more reason to start acting up. He didn’t want to freak out like the girl in high school that lost her shit every time her crush texted her, but Minghao realizes that he’s almost exactly that.

The two of them still weren’t that close just yet, not close enough for Minghao to even consider them friends, honestly. After that one day in the library, he can at least say he wasn’t uncomfortable around Jun anymore, but they still didn’t talk very much in that class, especially because Wonwoo, Jihoon and Hansol were constantly pulling Minghao into their own conversations. Despite that, they managed to still get some small talk here and there.

So when Jun asked to hang out on a Friday, Minghao was taken a little off guard.

It’s not like he wasn’t excited. In fact, it’s because he was excited that he was worried. He still, as much as he could, wanted to shove his blooming feelings down before they grew into anything he couldn’t control. He collects himself a bit, telling himself that there was nothing wrong with just hanging out. Plus, he still thought Jun was at least an interesting person. There were a lot of things that he could still find out, still learn about his lab partner. He could be making a new friend, and that was something to look forward to.

But the fact that they were going to be spending time _alone_ was something that honestly scared Minghao, too. There hadn’t really been a time where “together” meant just the two of them. In any other case, Minghao could have fled to Wonwoo and the others, or at the very least he would have had the white noise of other people around them to rely on as a means to help ease the awkwardness a little. But now Minghao’s going to have to deal with complete silence if he can’t manage to keep conversation up. When the whole situation started to sink in, he couldn’t help but start tapping his fingers from anxiousness.

Comp sci was his last class of the day, and it was as physically draining as PE was. The important distinction was that comp sci only required you to sit in a seat for an hour and do some shit on a computer that apparently counted towards their school credits, but it was just so _boring_ that Minghao always found himself tired afterwards. Most of the time he would resort to going on social media, but even that got boring after a while. He thinks he would almost prefer doing liners. At least that would be able to take his mind off of Jun.

What were they going to talk about? Would it only be physio stuff? Would he get to find out new tidbits of information about Jun? Would Minghao be able to unlock Jun’s probable tragic backstory? Would he find out why Jun acts so _normal_ compared to what everybody says about him? Would he be able to get some clarification as to just what the hell is going on? Minghao almost gets a headache from thinking too much. He’s not used to being so stressed about simply spending time with somebody.

The bell rings when he’s in the middle of finishing up some coding practices, and almost immediately he shuts off the computer and picks up his already-packed bag and starts walking out.

On the way to the parking lot, Minghao runs into Seungkwan, who looks like he’s seen better days.

“Happy Friday,” he greets the younger boy.

“Yeah, another week of being stuck in this shithole has gone by,” Seungkwan says through a comedically forced smile. “ I can’t wait to go through the next two and half years of it.” Ah, high school. If this place already had a general feeling of despair, Minghao could only shudder at what horrors college would contain. “Where are you going? Don’t you go the other way to walk home?”

“Yeah, but I’m hanging out with… a friend today.” Jun had been kind of a taboo topic for Minghao’s group of friends ever since Soonyoung had talked about him. It was like a dirty little secret, almost, something that Minghao was worried to bring up, ever. He and Soonyoung were good friends, so the last thing he needs is for somebody he barely met a few months ago to get in the way of that. Unfortunately, though, his curiosity towards Jun overrode that concern. Nothing to worry about, however. It’s not like they’ll find out about it.

“Wow. You have friends that aren’t comprised of me and the other fools.”

“Okay, asshole. It’s just somebody from my physio class.” Not totally a lie.

“Who?”

Minghao sweats. “A kid. Your age. His name is Hansol.” Totally a lie.

“Oh. That’s fun. Any idea what you’re doing?”

“Nah, not really.”

“Mm, well. Have fun. I’m not sure what I have to do this weekend, but I’m sure there’s something.”

“Really now.”

“Yeah. I have a strange feeling that there’s _some_ responsibility that I’m neglecting right now.”

After saying their goodbyes, Minghao eventually ends up at the student parking lot. After looking around for a little, he finds Jun leaning on the driver’s door of his car, arms crossed, with a pair of sunglasses on. Wow. Way to look like a dick, dude.

Jun’s car looked like another extension of his own appearance - the outside looked a little banged up with what seemed to be small scratches that were difficult to see coupled with a permanent film of dust, things that have accumulated over time. Of course, it was black, but the color seemed to be fading a bit from age. It looked like one of the older, more weathered cars in the lot, but that’s probably why it fit Jun well.

“Hey, took you long enough,” Jun says with a fast grin when Minghao gets close. He couldn’t tell through the shades if Jun was looking at him or not, but the fact that Jun smiled as soon as he came over made his chest warm up and swell a bit. _Damn. Get it together, Minghao._

“Yeah, sorry. Don’t usually come over to this side of the school,” Minghao explains as they both get in the car.

The interior is much cleaner than Minghao would have guessed; he almost expected to see chip bags and half-finished bottles of soda lying around, but there was nothing that he could see that needed to be cleaned up. The smell was also quite pleasant as well, but that was probably due to the little christmas tree air freshener that hung from his rearview mirror.

“So, you wanna go anywhere specific?”

“No, not really. I mean, you were the one that asked me to hang out today.”

“Hm. Okay, I know what we can do.” He starts up the car and starts backing out of the parking spot, checking behind him for any incoming cars. “You can, uh, turn on some music if you want. I don’t really have a preference.”

“Oh, okay. Do you have an AUX cord?”

“Nah, just find something on the radio.” At that, Minghao take a second to try to learn how to work the box in the car, eventually finding the power button.

“You don’t have any channels preset?”

“Oh, nah. I don’t listen to music.”

Minghao pauses. “What do you mean you don’t listen to music?”

“...I just don’t listen to music? At least when I’m driving.”

“That may be the most absurd thing I have ever heard.”

“What do you mean?”

Minghao hesitates, worried that he’s offending Jun, but the tone of his voice wasn’t hostile at all. If anything, he sounded playful. “I mean, like. You just drive home? And other places? In total silence?”

“...yeah, kinda. I mean there’s like. The sound of my engine. And like. Other people’s music. Sometimes the occasional honk here and there.”

“Is it because you get distracted easily?”

“No, I just don’t really. Like. _Like_ listening to music when I’m driving.” Jun scratches the back of his head, shy, embarrassed, almost. _Cute_. “Man, you’re making me feel like nobody else does this.”

“It’s because nobody else _does_!” Minghao starts laughing, and to his pleasant surprise, Jun does too. It’s a small one, as if he’s trying to hold it back a bit, but it’s a laugh nonetheless. “Okay, whatever. At least when you’re driving me, we’re going to have some tunes. Let me look around for something that you might like.”

For a couple of minutes, Minghao scrolls through the stations, stopping every time a song comes on. He would ask Jun if he likes it, and Jun would wait a little before responding with a shake of the head and a reason, something like “too loud” or “rap isn’t really my thing”. Thankfully, this eats up at a lot of the time that would probably have been filled with forced conversation with half-assed responses.

After seemingly going through all of the stations, Jun finally says, “Wait, yeah. This is good. I like this.”

“Oh. Lorde.”

“What now? Are you going to judge my taste in music?”

“No, no. I meant ‘oh, Lorde’. Not ‘oh, lord’.”

“...is there a difference?”

“Lorde is an artist. There’s an e at the end. It’s a stage name.”

“I… okay. Bizarre. Didn’t think people would be pretentious enough to give themselves a title of royalty for a stage name, but whatever. We’re here.” Jun finds a parking spot and the two of them step out of the car together before Minghao notices where they were.

“Why are we at the grocery store?”

“I needa pick up stuff for dinner tonight.”

“...you wanted to hang out and you took me to run errands?”

“Well you didn’t have any ideas where to go! I just needed to make the most out of my time!”

“Okay, okay, fine. Let’s go in.”

The store was the neighborhood stop to get fresh produce. Minghao doesn’t remember going anywhere else ever since he was little. Walking in, everything is familiar; the peeling linoleum floor and smell of fresh fruits and vegetables were all things that brought a sense of comfort, almost. He remembers getting those small candies at the front when he really, really begged his mom to get it for him.

Jun seems to want to get out of here as quickly as possible, however, going around so quickly that Minghao might break a sweat trying to keep up with him.

“Okay, first things first, eggs.” Almost aggressively, Jun grabs a tray of eggs and plops it into the cart.

“Don’tcha think you should be a little more careful with that?”

“They’re just eggs. It’s not like I’m gonna hurt their feelings or anything.”

“Are you aware that eggs are fragile? And can break if you manhandle them like that?”

“A wise man once said, ‘you can’t make an omelette without breaking a few eggs’.”

“That saying is not meant to be taken literally, and not in this situation especially.”

“I’m guess all I’m saying is I can make a mean omelette.” Jun starts to laugh at his own joke, and Minghao smiles at the sight of it.

“You can’t make an omelette if you break all of your eggs at the goddamn supermarket, but I’ll hold you to that.”

They continue shopping, not really talking much, but Minghao finds some comfort in the silence. He finds that he doesn’t feel the need to fill every moment with noise, doesn’t feel the need to make useless small talk with Jun. He could just enjoy spending time with him and not worry about forcing friendship onto him. If Jun didn’t mind, Minghao should be fine too.

Eventually, they’re standing at the register. Jun pays for everything and the two start to walk out together. On the way to the car, something catches Minghao’s eye.

“Is that place new?”

“Oh, the frozen yogurt place? I think so. They opened up like two weeks ago, if I remember correctly.”

“Huh.”

“You wanna go get some?”

“I didn’t bring any money.”

“That’s not the question I asked, Minghao.” Hearing Jun say his name with the slight husk of his voice sent a shiver all over Minghao. He hadn’t recalled Jun saying his name before, and he had to admit that he could get used to it. “I can pay for you. You’ll just owe me a favor later.”

“...you don’t want Mingyu’s number, do you?”

“What? Who’s Mingyu?”

“Never mind.”

Minghao helps Jun put his things in the car, mostly putting things in the back seat instead of the trunk. After buckling a watermelon in a seatbelt, Jun locks his car door and the two start walking back over to the yogurt shop.

The store definitely _looked_ new, in clear contrast compared to the supermarket that they were in not too long ago. The outside featured a large sign that read _Snowgurt_ , a name that Jun described as “something a second grader could have made up”. The outside had clean metal tables with holes where umbrellas should go, but since it wasn’t raining or too hot outside, they sat bare. The inside had walls that were freshly painted with bright colors and funky looking characters that Minghao determines to be some cute versions of polar bears, penguins and seals. Along one of the far walls, there’s a row of dispenser machines with placards showing which flavor will come out of which faucet. There was also the classic parlor-style ice cream setup, complete with a glass window to peek at all of the flavors.

“Hello! Welcome to Snowgurt, the only ice cream, gelato and frozen yogurt specialty store in town!” a voice almost sang. There was a girl behind the ice cream cooler, just barely taller than the glass. She did look oddly familiar, though, Minghao noted. “Our shaved ice machine is broken right now, unfortunately, but please help yourselves to any of our other options.”

“Do you guys have sample cups?” Jun asks.

“Yes, we do!” The girl pulls out some small paper cups, stacked on top of one another and hands a few to Jun. Jun fumbles with it for a second, trying for an embarrassingly long time to separate them, and the girl behind the counter chuckles at his struggle. Minghao does too. “Is he usually this....”

“Incompetent? Not sure.”

“Hey, who drove you here?” Jun pipes up in an attempt to defend his pride.

“You, and at this point, I’m surprised I got here in one piece.” The girl laughs again. Jun manages to finally get them apart and pulls Minghao to where the frozen yogurt dispensers were.

“Orange creamsicle. That sounds pretty okay.” Minghao stood and gauged his choices. There were some of the more tame flavors, like strawberry and chocolate, but then there were the really odd ones too. Minghao didn’t know what three meat pizza in yogurt form would taste like, and part of him didn’t really want to find out.

“Well, I already know what I want.” Jun walks away from Minghao, who, after not much more contemplating, settles on the chocolate and honey graham options. After trying it with the sample cup, he finds the mix to be pretty good and fills a bowl with it before moving over to the toppings area. Hopefully they would have some mini-marshmallows so that he could frankenstein some sort of s’mores flavor in his mouth. Jun was already standing in front of some of the containers of snacks while Minghao takes a quick peek into his bowl and immediately feels compelled to say something.

“You wanna tell me why you literally only have the plain tart?”

“Is there something wrong with that?”

“I just thought you’d pick something a little less boring.”

“Hey,” Jun starts up, “There’s nothing wrong with liking something simple. Besides, I’ve always preferred tasting the toppings.” With that, he starts to pile some of the different options onto his sad, plain white yogurt. He seemed to favor some of the more sugary things, choosing the most colorful and probably most unhealthy combination of sprinkles, cereal, and cookie crumbs to dump on top of the dessert. Along with that, he drizzles a ton of caramel on everything, enough to blanket the entire sugary mess and make somebody wonder if there was even yogurt in the bowl to begin with. Minghao wonders how he stays in shape if this is the sort of thing that goes into his body.

Deciding it best to not say anything about Jun’s shitstorm of a yogurt bowl, Minghao tops off his own yogurt before the two of them head to the counter. Jun takes a raggedy bill from his wallet and hands it to her.

“Is this for the both of you?”

Jun nods before turning to Minghao. “‘Incompetent’ my ass, Minghao. You would be yogurt-less if it weren’t for me.”

“Yeah, yeah, whatever. Just be a gentleman and pay for me, will you?”

The girl smiles, calculating the change. “You two are cute.”

Minghao looks at her in shock. Oh my god, she thought they were _dating_. “N-no, we’re not-”

“Yeah, _we’re_ not cute. Minghao is no match for my good looks.” Minghao shoves his shoulder as Jun starts snickering.

The girl shakes her head with a smile and hands over Jun’s change before asking if they were going to eat here or take it to go.

“It’s up to you,” Jun says to Minghao.

“Well, if you don’t have anywhere to be.”

“Here it is then.” Jun gets two spoons from the girl, and hands one over to Minghao.

The two find a table in the shop, which wasn’t so hard, seeing as there was nobody else in the shop today. Minghao is glad that they opted to sit inside where the temperature was more regulated and there wasn’t the annoyance of pesky bugs to disturb them. He takes a spoonful of the yogurt and enjoys it after his tongue can process all of the different flavors, and he's happy to find that it does, in fact, taste like s'mores. “Really though, thanks for paying for me.”

“It’s no problem.” Jun had started on his own bowl as well. There was a long string of caramel that was attached to Jun’s spoon as he scooped up a bite. With a wide mouth, he managed to take in all of it, and Minghao tried his best not to visibly cringe.

“Enjoying yourself?”

“Yes, I am, despite such harsh judgement. I can’t believe I have to defend my froyo choices with you.” Minghao can see the mushy combination of half-melted frozen yogurt, partially chewed cereal pieces and strings of caramel all over the inside of Jun’s mouth as he spoke. He shook his head and laughed a little.

“Well, either way, you kinda got something on your cheek. Probably wouldn’t have been there if you didn’t slather caramel on everything.”

“Oh, shit. Where?”

“Your right cheek. No, your other right. A little higher, no too high, god, let me just-” and suddenly, in a simple instinctual motion, Minghao has his hand up against Jun’s face, wiping away a drip of caramel with his thumb.

Jun’s skin is really soft, a lot softer than Minghao would have thought. Jun had a relatively clear face, but like any teenager, the side effects of puberty and the desire for a flawless complexion must have gotten the best of him, leaving some acne scars and some bumps too small to be considered pimples at all. Jun’s hard, angular features were a little misleading, as Minghao was surprised to find that there was still a little bit of a _squish_ to his face, a little bit of baby fat maybe.

He runs his finger over the spot over and over in a slow wiping motion, telling himself that it’s just to make sure he gets everything, but he already knows that he’s really only doing it because he gets some sort of weird high off of feeling Jun’s skin underneath his own. His hand rests on the side of Jun’s profile, gently pressed up against his jaw and cheek, and Minghao realizes that Jun is looking at him.

His eyes weren’t filled with alarm and confusion like Minghao would have thought them to be. Rather, they looked intrigued, like he was wondering exactly what Minghao was doing, what he was going to do next.

It’s only then that Minghao realizes the severity of what he’s doing. Jun’s gaze always made Minghao feel a little vulnerable, like every single one of his actions would be factored into Jun’s still-forming opinion of him. And now here he was, leaned all the way across the table, invading Jun’s personal space. Minghao pulls away, slightly flustered at the intimacy, slightly ashamed of himself for doing something so forward.

“I-uh. Sorry. Could’ve just. Uh. Let you handle it.” Minghao stares into his bowl of frozen yogurt, and it might’ve started melting from how much he was trying to avert his line of sight from Jun. He hopes for a thunderstorm to usher itself into existence right _fucking_ now so that he could be hit by a lightning bolt and not have to suffer through this.

“No, it’s okay.” Jun pauses for a second. “Not a big deal.” Minghao can hear in his voice that it was, indeed, kind of a big deal.

God, what was he _thinking_? He’d just had some sort of inner monologue that day about how the two of them weren’t that close yet and he touched his face. No, not even touched. Stroked. _Caressed_. For like, thirty seconds, maybe! A whole half of a minute of unwarranted, uncalled for touching that was usually reserved for maybe really close friends, but really, who was he kidding? Minghao can’t believe he really just did a _romantic as fuck_ gesture on poor, unsuspecting Jun, who probably was sitting there, uncomfortable, judging Minghao because _who the fuck touches other people’s faces when you’ve only really known them for like, a day_?

“I, uh, got an idea for what we can do for our project, by the way.”

“Oh, that’s good. Lemme hear it.” _Please, anything to get away from what just happened_.

“I was thinking we could do it about, uh, sex.”

Minghao looks back at Jun with a puzzled, shocked look on his face. “Excuse me?”

“Sex. Y’know. The diddly-do.”

There was no legitimate reason for him to be so scandalized by sex, seeing that he was already pretty far into high school with a number of his friends having already lost their virginities (or so they claim). It’s just the fact that there were so many different options that this project could be on - literally any physical activity - and Jun has to pick the one that is most certainly going to get some people in that class to question the maturity of them both.

It also didn’t help that he’s going to have to get into the logistics of sex with Jun. Minghao reddens at the thought.

“So, what do you think? I think it’d be pretty funny.”

“Are you really so childish to think that sex is funny?”

“No, but I think that it’d be funny because nobody else is going to do it. It’s just some outside-of-the-box thinking. Plus, I know a handful of people in that class that really need a crash course on sex ed.”

“I guess that could work out. I don’t really have any ideas, anyway.”

“Great. Maybe we can meet up sometime next week. I’m working all weekend.”

“That sounds unfortunate. Don’t you get tired of wiping up people’s sweat and stuff?”

“Yeah, but pay’s good enough. Coworkers are pretty cool too. I got a bunch of stories.”

“Oh? Do tell.”

“Yeah. There’s a lot of us that are around the same age, so we’re pretty chill. Let me tell you about this one time I had to wipe up somebody’s protein shake-vomit off the floor.”

The conversation goes off from there, and Minghao is pleasantly surprised when he and Jun are back at it again with the simple, casual back and forth talking.

He was worried that the situation in the library was going to be as smooth as it got between them, which made him a little sad. It’s not like he didn’t enjoy that, he just remembers it being so painfully _new_ and careful. He didn’t want to cross any boundaries, mention anything that may have been a sensitive subject. But throughout the day and here, now, he found himself making more jokes and even teasing Jun now and again. He felt himself get comfortable.

It was something refreshing. Minghao doesn’t remember the last time he’s had a conversation like this outside of his friend group. He’d grown used to them, in a good, familiar way, but it was nice to get to know somebody new again, to pick up their little quirks, to see how their thought process was like.

After a lot of laughing and even a refill on their yogurt (Jun insisted it was fine that he paid again), Minghao’s phone buzzes with a call from his mom.

“Hello? Yeah, I’m just out with a friend right now. Yeah, he’s cool. Yeah, he can get me home.” Minghao whispers at Jun, “You can get me home, right?” He nods. “Mhm. Yeah. Okay. No, I don’t have homework to do tonight, it’s a friday. Okay. Okay. Love you too. Bye.”

“Gotta get home?”

“Yeah. My mom’s getting worried.”

“Moms are like that.” Jun picks up his now-empty bowl along with Minghao’s to throw away. Minghao looks outside and hadn’t even realized it was dark out. He looks at his phone again to check the time, realizing that it’s almost ten.

“You ready to go?” Jun calls from near the door. Minghao nods and gets up to leave. Jun holds the door open for him with a gesturing arm and a “after you”, but before he could step out, he hears the girl from the counter again.

“Have a nice night you two! Thanks for coming in!” He simply smiles at her in response while Jun waves.

The drive home was filled with some talking and music too quiet to really hear. It was cold enough outside that when Minghao hovers his hand over the glass of the window, it would begin to fog up. Minghao would tell Jun to turn into whatever street he needed to so that he could get home. He almost wanted to direct him incorrectly just so that he could stay in his company for a little while longer, but that might have been a little weird.

Not much longer after leaving the plaza, they’re on the street in front of Minghao’s home, but Jun’s already in the middle of a work story, so he doesn’t get out of the car immediately.

“So she asks me, ‘do you have anything lighter than this?’ And for the fifth time, I tell her, ‘ma’am, this is our lightest dumbbell. It’s half a pound.’ And she looks at me like _I’m_ the crazy one. She just sighed and asked me if there was anybody else she could talk to, so I handed her over to another one of my coworkers - Julie, the one with the weird obsession with collecting pens? Remember I told you about her?”

“Mhm,” hums Minghao.

“Yeah, so Julie takes over for a little and after the woman walks away, Julie’s like ‘the fuck’s her problem? Don’t you _want_ to build muscle? Isn’t that the point of lifting weights?’ And I’m just like ‘right? That’s what I was thinkin-” Jun is interrupted by Minghao’s phone going off with the same ringtone as before, indicating that it was his mom again.

“Hey, mom. Yeah, I’m outside right now. No, sitting in a car. A friend of mine. He’s a senior. His name is Jun. Junhui. Wen Junhui. Yes, he’s Chinese. You want to meet him? No, don’t come outside, Mom, wait-”

“Hello!” Minghao’s mother has the voice that every mother has when she meets somebody new. After knowing her all his life, Minghao can hear the fakeness behind it, but he can’t blame her, since he does the exact same.

“Hello,”Jun replies. Minghao can hear the mild nervousness in his voice, and it’s almost kind of endearing. He carries on to greet her in their native tongue, although his voice is shaky when he does so, like he’s unsure that he’s saying it correctly, even though Minghao is certain he’s done it countless times before. It’s funny, Minghao thinks. If only all of those people that were scared of Jun would see how much he’s terrified of just talking to somebody else’s mother.

“Oh, you’re so polite,” she laughs. “There’s no need for the Mandarin, honey, but I appreciate how respectful you are! Why can’t you be more like him, Minghao?”

“Mom…”

“So handsome, too!”

“Mom!”

“Sorry, sorry. I just came out to see what you look like. Have to make sure that my son isn’t hanging around with the wrong kids, you know.” Minghao smiles. There must have been some sort of Mom Sense that told her that Jun was pretty alright. At this point, he still couldn’t decide who to trust when it came to who Jun really was - what he hears around school and what he sees for himself prove to be two very contrasting views - but his mom just hopped on the _Jun’s Okay_ train. That has to count for something. “We have some food inside, would you like to come in?”

“No, it’s okay, thank you.” Minghao bites his lip. Jun should know better than to deny a meal from a Chinese mother. “I need to be home soon, but maybe I can come by another time.” Ample reasoning. You're off the hook for now, Jun. 

“Sounds great! Now, if you don’t mind, I’ll be taking my son now.”

“That’s a way to put it,” Minghao sighs, cringing only a little from his mother. He loved her, but there’s just some things you don’t want your friends to hear. “Bye, Jun. I’ll see you monday.”

“Bye, Minghao.” Jun shoots him another one of those smiles, the kind that probably wasn’t anything special, but also the kind that made Minghao’s heart spurt wings and knock on his chest in an attempt to become free, but like every other time this has happened, Minghao shoves it deep down inside himself and simply smiles back.

Jun drives away with Minghao still standing on the sidewalk until his mom tells him to come inside before he catches a cold. Once inside, he tells her that he already ate with Jun, so there was no need for dinner, much to her dismay. She frowns, but lets him off the hook. Minghao grins in response, kisses her on the forehead, and walks to his room.

 

**_To: Jun_ **

_Message me when you’re home so I know you got there safely!_

 

It was only a precaution. Minghao always wanted to make sure that his friends got home in one piece. He didn’t have to worry much with them, though, since they all would usually get rides from their parents or would be so active on their group chat that he didn’t have to worry about it. He was just making sure that Jun got the same treatment.

 

**_From: Jun_ **

_oh i’ve been home for a little while already_

**_To: Jun_ **

_Oh, really?_

**_From: Jun_ **

_yeah, i live like a block and a half away from your house actually_

**_To: Jun_ **

_Oh, cool. That’ll make things easier for when we meet up for our project._

 

Minghao twiddles his fingers for a second.

 

**_To: Jun_ **

_I had fun today._

 

Too frank. Spice it up a bit.

 

**_To: Jun_ **

_A lot of fun!_

**_From: Jun_ **

_yeah? so did i haha_

**_From: Jun_ **

_i’d be happy to do it again sometime_

**_To: Jun_ **

_And I’d be happy to join you._

**_From: Jun_ **

_cool_

**_From: Jun_ **

_btw did you_

**_From: Jun_ **

_call me your friend earlier?_

 

Minghao starts to sweat a bit. Was that too forward? He thought that they were close enough to be considered friends at this point, since they’ve laughed a lot and spent time together already, so he was a little confused. Was Jun weirded out by that? That he called them _friends_?

Oh, boy, wait till he hears how Minghao actually feels.

 

**_To: Jun_ **

_Yeah I did_

**_To: Jun_ **

_Was I not supposed to?_

**_From: Jun_ **

_nono, it’s ok_

**_From: Jun_ **

_don’t worry about it_

**_From: Jun_ **

_just wanted to make sure_

**_From: Jun_ **

_but yeah, i’m pretty tired_

**_From: Jun_ **

_i’ll talk to you later, minghao_

**_To: Jun_ **

_Okay, gnight Jun :)_

 

Minghao stands there and waits for a proper goodnight text from Jun, but after remaining idle in the middle of his room for what is definitely too long, he throws his phone onto the bed, hearing it buzz one more time as he does so. Before he could realize what he’s doing, he’s diving after it, hoping it’s from Jun, but is displeased to discover that it’s actually from Mingyu.

 

**_From: fuckin moron_ **

_hey hao_

**_To: fuckin moron_ **

_What do you want_

**_From: fuckin moron_ **

_fuckin moron sent an attachment._

**_From: fuckin moron_ **

_what is this?_

 

It takes a second for the picture to load, but once he realizes what it is, Minghao’s mouth drops open from horror, disbelief, and embarrassment.

It was a Snapchat, a bit blurry and far away, as if somebody was trying to take a picture of something in secret. The caption read “ _wow, look at how cute they are together!! :3_ ”. From the angle and a little bit of recollection, Minghao suddenly has everything rushing back to him.

He knew that there was something up with the worker from the yogurt shop. He recognized her now as the girl that sits four rows behind him in his second period class. He doesn’t even remember her name - not that it matters at this point. To make matters even worse, he remembers again that he didn’t clarify that he and Jun were _not_ on a date, and not romantically involved.

The biggest problem was that, out of the probable hours that they were there, she just had to take a picture when Minghao was wiping the caramel off of Jun’s face, with a stupid, lovey-dovey look in his eyes.

 

**_From: fuckin moron_ **

_are you two on a date? or something_

 

Minghao had a feeling that was going to be the assumption. Not only is that picture being spread, so is the misconception that they were dating. Great.

 

**_From: fuckin moron_ **

_??????????????_

**_To: fuckin moron_ **

_No, we weren’t._

**_To: fuckin moron_ **

_Who’d you get this from?_

**_From: fuckin moron_ **

_seok sent it to me actually_

**_From: fuckin moron_ **

_but apparrntly everybkdy in the school has it tho_

**_To: fuckin moron_ **

_What._

**_To: fuckin moron_ **

_W h a t._

**_From: fuckin moron_ **

_yeah man_

**_From: fuckin moron_ **

_it spread pretty fast_

**_From: fuckin moron_ **

_prob bc it’s rare to see wen junhui out in public_

**_From: fuckin moron_ **

_with another person too like wow_

**_From: fuckin moron_ **

_wait why were you out with him?_

 

Minghao chooses to ignore that.

 

**_From: fuckin moron_ **

_you look pretty in love tho_

**_From: fuckin moron_ **

_somethin you got to tell me? ;;;;;;^)_

**_To: fuckin moron_ **

_No._

**_To: fuckin moron_ **

_Goodnight, Mingyu._

**_From: fuckin moron_ **

_likely story, pal_

**_From: fuckin moron_ **

_you cant escape this!!!!!!_

 

 

Minghao audibly groans and tosses his phone back onto the bed, shuts off the light, and rolls under the covers.

He knows he can’t escape this. Sooner or later, he’s going to have to deal with the fallout of this whole situation, and he’s not looking forward to it. For right now, he’s going to rest. It’s a little early to go to sleep, especially for a friday, but he doesn’t care. He just needs to wake up to another day. This one wasn’t so good anymore.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ok a few things
> 
> 1) i wanted to upload this on June 8th bc junhao day but ao3 says publication date is the ninth which makes me a little sad bUT it's ok but the ninth just happens to be the day between junhao day and jun's birthday so we all good (#happyjunday !!)
> 
> 2) Yes, I am aware of the china line song in the newest mini album I screamed when i saw the tracklist and ofc its a BOP


	5. so everything's gone to shit

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Minghao's world has spiraled out and there is (seemingly) no way he's going to fix any of it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hello again!!
> 
> sorry this upload took SOOOO long to come - twice as long as normal, actually! ;-; it's just that i've been swamped with a lot things lately, despite it being my vacation time orz 
> 
> thank you to all of you who take the time out of your day to read this, and i hope i can make your day better with this update <3

Avoiding your friends is almost like reaching a difficult level in a game that you’re playing.

You’ve come so far, spending a decent amount of time and effort to reach this point, and you’ve had a good time doing it. You’ve had a lot of fun and went through a lot of memorable experiences that you’ll eventually look back at fondly when you’re standing in line or when you’re supposed to be listening in class.

Unfortunately, you’ve come to a seemingly insurmountable part in the story that you need to be able to get through in order to continue, to reach the happy ending that everybody looks forward to. You think of as many ways as you can to try to approach it, but every solution that you make up in your head just seems to end badly. Game over.

Maybe Minghao had just been playing too many single-player RPGs (or just spending too much time alone in general) lately. That would make sense, seeing as he was trying everything in his immediate power to avoid any situation that would force him to talk about The Incident.

Okay, maybe calling it The Incident would be too dramatic. But it _was_ pretty serious.

He’d told Mingyu to tell the others that he was going on a family trip over the weekend and that he’d be busy spending time with his cousins and stuff, and evidently they bought it. Minghao figured that they would be suspicious, but if they weren’t going to act on it, he wasn’t going to complain. He didn’t want to have to explain himself to the guys about why he was spending time with Jun after Soonyoung had made it clear to them all that Jun was not the best of people. There was trust that Minghao knew would be broken.

Their group chat, like always, would ping constantly, but all Minghao could do was look at the conversations that they were having, not wanting to run the risk of sending one message only to be bombarded with questions about _exactly_ why he was on that “date”.

One of the messages was addressed to Minghao specifically, a question regarding his opinion on the importance of Big Hero 6. Almost impulsively he reached to answer it, just because he loved that movie so much that he could ramble on about how that movie teaches kids about the importance of grief and loss while simultaneously revealing the dangers of improper coping mechanisms almost on command, but he stopped himself before he could.

If he had time to give answer that question, he had time to give an explanation for his actions.

In the mere two days that he was home with nobody to talk to, he had time to think (probably too much) about the entire situation. The most prominent thought was that he might need to transfer schools or something. Maybe starting out new somewhere else, giving himself a new name and giving himself a new personality would be the key to fixing everything.

At least then he wouldn’t have to see Soonyoung’s betrayed face, coupled with Seokmin’s, the latter would probably hurt Minghao much more. Not that Soonyoung wasn’t as close or anything, but being the reason that Seokmin was hurt would eat at Minghao until the day he died.

Seungkwan can do his whole spiel of acting that he didn’t care that Minghao dropped them collectively, but really, he would be hurting inside, and Minghao would stay up feeling guilty that he broke a poor little sophomore’s heart.

As for Mingyu… well, Minghao wouldn’t be _too_ against the idea of having to spend less time with him.

Ah, shit. Can’t even say that he wouldn’t miss Mingyu. That’s just a testament to just how bad everything’s gotten. Not that Mingyu would be easy to get rid of, though. Minghao knows that even if he were to travel halfway across the world, Mingyu would still send him dog videos and baking recipes he wants to try.

Of course, there were other people too, like the guys he met in physio. He doesn’t really talk to them outside of class, but that doesn’t really mean that he didn’t consider them close friends. Plus, Hansol promised that he would invite them all over for pasta night sometime. And his mom, according to him at least, made the best pasta.

And then there was Jun, of course. Regardless of what’s happened, Minghao knows he’s going to be upset that all of the awkwardness and breaking down walls is going to be for nothing. He’s going to be upset that he’s not going to find out just exactly why Jun is the way that he is. He’s going to be upset that he Jun’s going to go back to having no friends again. He’s going to be upset that that glorious smile never seeing the light of day again.

Minghao’s life was ruined. Over. Done. Cancelled. The save file has been corrupted, no longer able to play.

He contemplated asking his mom if he could just stay home, but realized that it was probably just a better idea to handle the problem as soon as he could. This was going to be like removing a band-aid; it’s going to hurt either way, but ripping it off as fast as he could would be better than trying to have it go on longer than it needs to.

Stepping onto campus early that Monday morning, he couldn’t help but feel like when Mingyu said that word got around, he wasn’t exaggerating. Maybe it was just him being paranoid, but Minghao really felt as if he suddenly became the talk of the town.

Gossip is like an infection and high school is where it thrives, Minghao knew at least that much. Symptoms include (but are not limited to) stares that are anything but subtle, hushed whispers, and “did you hear x about y”. Minghao assumes that there isn’t a cure.

He feels alone. Not as bad as it was back when he was a freshly transferred student, but still alone. Enough to make his chest ache with something he can’t pinpoint between guilt, sadness, and confusion. He doesn’t feel like he’s done anything wrong, and yet it feels like everybody is pointing fingers at him, making him the immediate villain of their lives. He’d much rather go back to having nobody care about him.

“Hello? Feels like I’m talking to a wall here.”

Minghao is derailed from his train of thought back into his Pre-Calc class, and he’s thankful. In a time and place where everybody is making him feel bad for something harmless, he doesn’t want to do the same to himself.

“And it’s pretty significant that _I’m_ the one saying that.” Minghao looks at Wonwoo, who, despite sounding upset, didn’t really show any signs of it. It was another day where the teacher gave the class time to do their work, but Minghao obviously feels that there’s more important matters he needs to worry about at the moment.

“Sorry,” Minghao responds.

“You just missed my entire explanation about how to graph trigonometric functions. And a pun. A good one. I’m a little hurt.” Wonwoo grins, but Minghao doesn’t react. “Hey, everything okay? You seem a little out of it.”

“Not really.”

“What is it then?”

Confused, Minghao turns over to look at Wonwoo. “Do you seriously not know?”

The older boy sighs. “I do. It’s just that I didn’t want to bring it up without knowing if you were comfortable with it or not.”

“Don’t worry about it,” Minghao says. “Who’d you hear it from?”

“I was eavesdropping on people last period. It’s easier when you don’t talk as much. Makes other people think that you’re busy doing your own thing all the time. You could listen in on conversations and they’d have no clue.” Wonwoo sounds proud of himself, but redirects his attention back to Minghao. “From what I’ve heard, you got it kinda bad, don’t you? I mean, I haven’t heard much, just the basic stuff. Do you mind telling me specifics?”

“Yeah, that’s fine. You’re a friend.”

“I just have a few questions.” He sits up, making himself more comfortable. “First of all, are you alright?”

“What do you mean?”

“Minghao, everybody is talking about you. I’ve heard people saying things like you’ve suddenly become a meth addict and that you get your stuff from Junhui. Or like, you’re dating Junhui because he threatened your life or your family’s. It’s not good for the soul to be the target of shit like that. So, again, are you alright?”

Minghao bites the inside of his bottom lip. Those claims were so ridiculous it was almost funny. It really seems like people need a reason, a bad one, to want to be spending time with Jun. Like it’s impossible to genuinely enjoy being around him. Hearing those only made Minghao feel less sorry for himself and more sorry for Jun.

Minghao had been dealing with people talking shit about him for a weekend. Jun’s been dealing with this for much, much longer. Minghao’s chest aches for him.

“Yeah, I’m fine.”

“That’s good to hear.” Wonwoo gives a smile that fills Minghao with a sense of assurance. There was something behind that smile that was comforting and sweet, and Minghao wonders if Wonwoo meant to do that. “Okay, next question. Was it really a date?”

“No.”

“I heard he paid for you.”

“...he did.”

“Sounds romantic.”

“It wasn’t. I just wanted frozen yogurt, he offered to pay.”

“Hm. Did you wish it was?”

“What?”

“Did you wish it was a date?”

“A little.” Minghao only hesitates momentarily in telling Wonwoo, only because he had to decide that he could trust him. Wonwoo, being quiet and a little awkward in most social situations, wouldn’t be the one running around shouting about how his friend has a little crush. On top of that, Wonwoo, despite having some moments of silliness, was mature, mature enough to know that this was something that Minghao didn’t want to tell to everybody, so he would know to keep it to himself.

“Cute. You’d make a nice couple.”

“Thanks, but I doubt it.”

“Y’never know. Anyways, are you mad at the girl who took the picture?”

“Not really. It’s a little creepy and uncalled for, but I’m not going to like, hunt her down or whatever.”

“You’re a good kid. Moving on. I know about the incident between Junhui and Soonyoung. And I know Soonyoung isn’t particularly on good terms with Junhui.”

“Yeah.”

“And knowing Soonyoung,” Wonwoo says as he adjusts his glasses higher on his nose, “Being on anything _but_ good terms with him is essentially him having beef with you. I’m guessing you’re worried about how he took the information.”

Minghao can only nod.

“I heard you’d been avoiding them. Your friends, I mean.”

Minghao nods again.

“Don’t you see them during break?”

“I… locked myself in a bathroom stall,” Minghao explains, putting his head down, unable to look at Wonwoo. It was pitiful, but Wonwoo did nothing to make Minghao feel bad about it.

“Hey, it’s okay.” Wonwoo rubs a hand on Minghao’s shoulder and lets a moment of silence pass, and Minghao isn’t sure if he did it to think or for dramatic timing, but eventually he starts to speak again. “This might be a little harsh, and I’m sorry for that. But I really think that you’re overreacting. About the whole situation, I mean.”

Minghao looks up at him. “You think so?”

“Yeah. I’m not saying I wouldn’t be scared if I was you, but I would have a little more faith in my friends. Of course, I don’t know them as well as you do, I don’t know how close they consider you to be to them. But if it were me, I wouldn’t push somebody away because of a silly rumor that they themselves can tell me is whether or not is true.”

“You said it yourself, though. Soonyoung doesn’t like Jun. Don’t you think that that’s enough for him to be mad at me?”

“Just for _spending time with him?_   Soonyoung’s a little immature sometimes, but he’s not like that. He’s too nice for that.”

Minghao hums. It’s not like Wonwoo was laying out new information for him, it wasn’t like any of this was something that Minghao hadn’t thought of before.

Soonyoung, by nature, is a caring and loving soul, too nice at heart to realistically be angry at Minghao (or anybody, really) for too long. Minghao remembers when Mingyu slipped and fell on top of the scarily accurate replica of the _entire_ set of Hamlet, castle and all, that Soonyoung had worked probably more than four weeks on, and crushed it. Soonyoung took one look at his his squished project and sighed only once before laughing and telling a terrified and guilt-ridden Mingyu that it was okay, that it wasn’t a big deal.

Minghao had a feeling that he would be forgiven. If Mingyu could reduce a month’s worth of hard work to a measly C+ and still be good friends with Soonyoung, Minghao knew that things weren’t going to be that bad. But just hearing it from another person kind of gave him the little boost that he needed, some validation to what he was thinking.

“I suppose you’re right. Thanks, Wonwoo.”

“No problem. I don’t like seeing you sad. It makes me uncomfortable.”

“Being sad makes you uncomfortable?”

“Of course it does.”

“Strange. I always took you for the ‘emotion is a weakness’ kinda guy.”

“Eh, I get what you’re saying. I’ve been emotionally constipated since the semester started.”

“...explain.”

“Y’know. Emotionally constipated. Like I _want_ to cry, but I can’t.”

“I’m _certain_ there’s a better term for that,” Minghao says, and the both of them laugh. Minghao feels good. He’d been holding all of this in for what felt like so long and having the ability to release it feels incredible. He can physically feel himself breathe a little bit easier.

The bell rings, and as Minghao is packing his things into his bag, he’s suddenly hit with the realization that he’s about to be shoved into a classroom with Jun.

It’s not like Minghao was going to avoid him. None of this was his fault, so Minghao had no reason to be mad at him. If anything, Jun was the one that he should work with to try to clear the air for everybody else. They could work together and try to explain that everything was just a misunderstanding.

Even with that, though, Minghao can feel himself holding his breath as he sits waiting for Jun to walk through the door.

The tardy bell rings and no Jun, though. Minghao thinks it odd. Not that there was anything wrong with him missing school. Even Jun, as tough as he may look, couldn’t be immune to the flu.

Minghao, being as horribly smitten as he was, found himself curious, pulling out his phone immediately.

 

**_To: Jun_ **

_Hey! Noticed that you weren’t in class today._

 

Minghao stops himself before sending, thinking to himself that it would be a _little_ creepy if somebody sent him a message like that. It made him sound obsessive, like he had to know of Jun’s whereabouts at all times.

Truthfully though, he kind of wanted to know, but only because he wondered what Jun did in his free time. After a bit of thought, he decides to add some more to it to make it seem more casual.

 

**_To: Jun_ **

_Hey! Noticed that you weren’t in class today. If you’re sick at home, I can share my notes with you if you_

 

“Minghao, I hope I’m not bothering you.”

He freezes. Suddenly he remembers that yes, class had just started, and Mrs. So was talking. Furthermore, although she let her kids use their phones, she definitely did _not_ like it when you used it while she was talking.

“What were you doing, exactly?”

“I-I-uh.” Minghao gulps, trying to sneakily slide his phone into his pocket. Not that it would really matter, though, since everybody in the class had their eyes on him.

“Come on now, if it’s more interesting than my lecture, I’m sure the class would like to know.” Her voice, although still retaining its cheerful cadence, carried authority and demand. Minghao wouldn’t have pegged her the type to embarrass him in front of the entire class, but she probably wouldn’t have pegged him to be a kid that uses his phone when he’s supposed to be paying attention.

“I was just messaging somebody.”

“About?” She’s persistent. Damn her. She wasn’t going to give up until she got the complete answer she expected. Must be a teacher thing. Minghao sighs in defeat.

“I was messaging Jun. I was going to tell him that I was going to let him see my notes. Since he isn’t here today.”

“Mm, I see,” she hums. “I guess that’s acceptable then.” She turns, and Minghao was about to settle down, glad that it was over, but she speaks up again soon after. “I’m going to be entirely honest and say that I didn’t really expect you two to talk at all. I know I assigned you two to be partners, but I thought that you two wouldn’t mesh very well, so it’s nice to see you two having a good relationship. It’s sweet.” She giggles.

Out of the corner of his eye, Minghao can see a few people around the class snicker and give each other looks. He bites his cheek. Thanks, Mrs. So. Adding fuel to the flame.

“Unfortunately, that doesn’t excuse you from punishment, so you’ll be spending lunch with me today. Now, as I was saying, there are different possible blood types, the most common being O-positive.”

She continues, but even without a phone, Minghao doesn’t pay attention to her. A lunch detention wasn’t that bad. On today of all days, it was preferred, actually. He didn’t think that he had the courage to talk to his friends today, and he doesn’t think he can stay in the bathroom for the entirety of lunch without eventually having a breakdown in the stall. On top of that, he knew that Seokmin peed every day during lunch, and he probably wouldn’t want to risk even the small chance of running into him.

The rest of class went by without anything eventful. Mrs. So had a lecture planned for the entire class period today, so there wasn’t really any talking, which made Minghao kind of glad. Since he was scolded at the beginning of class, everybody would have forgotten what had happened by now.

That was just wishful thinking, though. Minghao knows that at least one person is going to remember and pass it around school. Eventually what happened would turn into some convoluted, telephone-game version of itself that would have only a few aspects of what _actually_ happened be true to reality. Minghao swears that when word gets back to him, he’ll hear that people thought he was trying to send nudes in the middle of class.

The bell rang and most of the other kids in his class started their lazy shuffle out of the room and out to lunch, save for, surprisingly, Wonwoo and Jihoon.

“Hey kiddo,” Jihoon greets. It was already comedic enough that he was calling Minghao a kid while he himself was short and looked really boyish for his age, but got even funnier when he pulled out an actual fucking juice box from his bag. “Wonwoo told me about what had been going on with you, and we both thought we should hang out. So you don’t feel lonely,” he explains, puncturing the box and taking a quick sip.

“How? You two didn’t speak all period.”

“Telepathy.” Jihoon answers with such seriousness that Minghao would have actually believed him if not for Wonwoo snickering.

“Jihoon.”

“Fine, he wrote me a note.”

“It was a small piece of paper so I couldn’t say much,” Wonwoo says, pulling out his own lunch. It’s a divided container with the largest part holding rice, neatly and tightly packed. Next to it were pieces of meat and broccoli, and somehow all of it looked meticulously placed and maybe even too pretty to eat. The entire thing screams Wonwoo. “He doesn’t know much about the whole thing, but he knows the gist of it. And he knows you could use some friends right now.”

“And I hope you’re okay with me knowing some deets, because I’m curious.”

Minghao chuckles, pulling his own lunch out of his bag. “Nah, I don’t mind.”

“Good. I was going to beat it out of you if you weren’t going to tell me.”

“Jihoon.”

Minghao relays everything he told to Wonwoo to Jihoon as well, save for the “I actually have a crush on Jun” part. Jihoon, though a good listener, would often add his own comments about things. Minghao finds out very quickly that Jihoon just wants to fight _somebody._

“Okay, dude,” Minghao says with a smile, “I appreciate the offer, but you don’t need to fight the girl. Or Soonyoung, or Jun. Or anybody, for that matter. This is a situation that doesn’t need to be resolved with violence.”

“But it _can_ be, though.”

“Why is he like this?” Minghao asks to Wonwoo, who just shrugs, grins, and takes another bite of his food.

“I think he told me it’s how he shows affection.”

“It is,” Jihoon confirms. “I don’t want people getting the wrong impression of you, Minghao. If somebody were to be known around this school for being a bad person, I’d much rather it be me than you.”

“...That’s the nicest thing you’ve ever said. Thank you, Jihoon.”

“Don’t thank me. I haven’t even swung at anybody yet.”

The topic shifts soon after, but Minghao doesn’t mind. He feels more at peace now that he has the comfort of friends around him. On top of that, he feels more confident that things are going to be alright after all.

In the middle of Jihoon declaring his love of extra spicy Hot Cheetos, Minghao suddenly remembers that he forgot to finish the text message he was going to send Jun. He pulls out his phone and thinks for a moment about how to modify what he wanted to say.

 

**_To: Jun_ **

_Hey! Noticed you weren’t in class today. I can give you the notes I took in class if you want_

 

He’s about to slide his phone back into his pocket, but surprisingly his phone vibrates again.

 

**_From: Jun_ **

_yea thatd be rly cool thx_

 

Jun replying immediately made Minghao smile, admittedly, because again, he was more infatuated with Jun than he’d ever like to admit. Little things like this had the ability to make him freak out on the inside. He decides to keep up a conversation, since Jun was seemingly already on his phone.

 

**_To: Jun_ **

_Yeah no problem! :)_

**_To: Jun_ **

_How are you feeling, btw?_

**_From: Jun_ **

_im doin okay_

**_From: Jun_ **

_might have to miss a couple more days of school tho_

**_From: Jun_ **

_dunno when im gonna be back_

**_To: Jun_ **

_:(_

**_To: Jun_ **

_Sorry to hear that_

**_To: Jun_ **

_I’ll write down all the notes for you when you’re gone_

**_To: Jun_ **

_Get well soon!_

**_From: Jun_ **

_thanks, minghao_

 

“That Jun?”

Jihoon takes Minghao’s focus away from his phone. “Yeah, it is.”

“Cute.”

“Please don’t say that.”

“Or what?”

“I’m just saying, I have martial arts training,” Minghao smirks.

“Oh, really? You think that’s going to help you here, punk? I’d like to see you try some shi-”

“ _Jihoon._ ” Wonwoo says sternly, but it isn’t threatening. “I swear, you’re going to get in trouble one day and _I’m_ going to be the one that’s going to be dragged along with you.” He goes back to eating his lunch, and Minghao finds himself grateful that he’s met such strange yet caring friends.

And he wishes, desperately so, that the ones that he’s had for years will end up forgiving him in the end.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thank you so much for reading!! 
> 
> also, if you're a red velvet fan, you should check out my friend's [video for their 3rd anniversary](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0lmD3ScgiXI/). i know she worked super hard on it, so it'd be really cool if you could check it out! share it with your friends too!!
> 
> again, thank you all so much for reading!!! i hope you have a nice day, wherever you are :^)


	6. so i'm sorry

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Minghao tries to fix things.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> haha hey there again
> 
> two updates in one month!?? wow crazy 
> 
> i just want to say thank you all for taking the time out of your days to read my fic!! it means a lot to me ^^"
> 
> enjoy!!

The talk that Minghao had with Wonwoo really helped him realize a few things.

#1: He was kind of blowing things out of proportion. He already knew that sitting down and just explaining himself would more than enough for his friends, since…

#2: His friends cared about him, as much as he might’ve thought otherwise. No matter what he’d done, they probably were going to forgive him. They were all too nice, and they’ve all been through too much together for them to be able to drop him for something seemingly so small.

He’d have to find another way to thank Wonwoo more properly, probably with a snack from one of the school’s vending machines. Minghao has a faint recollection that Wonwoo has a thing for rice crackers.

After the talk, Minghao had devised a pretty foolproof plan (on his part, at least) to confront the situation.

He’s going to go straight to Soonyoung, not through the others. He thinks it’d be best to have a direct conversation between the two of them so there’s no misunderstandings. If Soonyoung was to forgive him, that would be the best situation. They would all go back to being friends, and Minghao wouldn’t have to be haunted by his guilt any longer.

On the other hand, however, Soonyoung could instead reject his apology, leaving Minghao in the situation that he dreaded, but was ultimately prepared for. At least he knows that Jihoon and Wonwoo would still be his friends, but he can only hope that they allow him to join their friend group at all, and even then, he hopes that he’ll assimilate well into them.

Either way, though, there was no debating whether or not Minghao _should_ go to Soonyoung. In fact, he’s already there. In front of his house. And immediately thinking that he _really_ should have thought of precisely what to say before ringing the doorbell.

The rest of that day of school went by pretty quickly, and Soonyoung’s house was only a single different turn from Minghao’s usual route home. He decided that today was going to be a good a day as any to take the problem and nip it at the bud.

Unfortunately, like always, his self-doubt started to rise the moment he reached the point of no return, which was ringing the doorbell to his friend’s house. Now he couldn’t back out, as much as he wanted to.

The door opens and Soonyoung’s dad answers, a bright smile that was passed down to his son. “Hello, Minghao.”

“Hello, Mr. Kwon,” Minghao replies shakily. He was never comfortable with the parents of his friends in the first place, so in this instance he felt even more uneasy than normal. “Is Soonyoung home?”

“Yes, he’s in his room. I wasn’t aware that you would be over today.”

“Well, I just wanted to come talk to him about something.”

“Ah, I see,” Mr. Kwon says as he backs away from the door to let Minghao in. The tone of his voice doesn’t indicate anything of his knowledge regarding the “conflict” that was happening between Minghao and his son. Minghao makes a note of how Soonyoung isn’t the type to gossip with his parents. “If there’s anything you need, like a snack or something, just let me know. I’ll be down here watching TV.”

Minghao nods and smiles before heading upstairs. He’s been to Soonyoung’s place before, so he knows his way around. His anxiousness, however, makes him slow his steps down as he heads up the stairs to the front of his friend’s closed door.

_Soonyoung might be taking a nap. Maybe I should come by another time_ , Minghao tells himself, but he clenches his fist. He steels himself, and with a shaky hand, he reaches to open the door before he can give himself any more excuses. He was here. He was going to do this.

The door swings open with Minghao calling out Soonyoung’s name, only to be mortified by what he sees.

Directly in front of him was Soonyoung, flailing his body around in a fit of passion to the beat his earphones were blasting out, something loud. He was completely bare of clothing save for a pair of boxer briefs that, unfortunately, were tight _enough_ to see little Soonie. Actual Soonyoung was obviously enjoying himself, smiling and lipsyncing every word with such vigor that you would have thought that he was performing to a crowd of thousands. It was kind of endearing.

He wouldn’t have noticed Minghao standing in the doorway if he didn’t attempt a spin, only to slip and almost fall on a pair of pants (that he likely wore today), barely catching himself. He looks up and makes eye contact with Minghao, who just chuckles awkwardly and waves.

All at once, Soonyoung covers as much of his body as he can with his arms (it does nothing), screams, and Minghao shuts the door with a reddened face.

“Boys? Is everything okay up there?” Minghao can hear from Mr. Kwon downstairs.

“Y-yeah dad! Everything is fine!” Soonyoung calls from behind his door.

Minghao’s face is _actually_ on fire as of the moment. This was definitely not what he expected to  happen, but seeing as nothing ever works out in his favor, he should have seen something like this coming. Everything just has to go downhill, even if Minghao was starting in the deepest valley possible.

After a minute or two, he’s surprised to see Soonyoung open his door, thankfully with more clothes on.

“Uh, hey there.” Soonyoung is obviously a little uncomfortable himself, a rare sight. Minghao didn’t think he knew what the word _shame_ meant.

“Hi.”

“You wanna, uh, come inside?”

“Sure.”

There’s a bit of tense air between them, and that’s to be expected. Minghao came here prepared for the worst. He wasn’t even sure if Soonyoung even considered him a friend at all at this point. He was ready to get kicked out of his house at any moment.

“So, um,” Soonyoung starts, rubbing the back of his neck, “what’s the haps?”

“I just,” Minghao takes a deep breath. Here goes nothing. “I just wanted to talk. About everything.”

“Okay.”

The lack of response from Soonyoung was a little unnerving. Usually he would be more talkative about everything. The fact that he wasn’t even trying to make conversation hurt Minghao a little bit, but he came to apologize, not to be forgiven.

“So I guess the first thing that I should say is that I wasn’t actually on a date with Jun. We were just hanging out, I don’t know what that girl was thinking when she took that picture, but I guess it kinda makes sense since he paid for me too. But it was because I didn’t bring any money with me, and he offered! There wasn’t anything going on between us, I promise. It’s just that we’re lab partners, and I suggested that we get to know each other better because we needed to start to work together, and I can’t really work with people that I’m not comfortable with, that’s why we were even out together at all, I just wanted to spend time with him to get to know the guy, not because I was doing it out of spite of you not really being cool with him, I wouldn’t do that to you, you know that, I just felt the need to get to know the guy because-”

“Minghao.”

“Y-yeah?”

“Did… did you think I was mad?”

Minghao doesn’t say anything for a second. He _can’t._ First of all, he needs to catch his breath, since he was rambling like a fool, but he also needs to process the fact that Soonyoung just implied that he wasn’t mad to begin with. Minghao didn’t even need to apologize because evidently wasn’t in trouble at all.

“I mean, yeah, I think if anything I would have been a little ticked off that you were dating Jun behind my back, but not because I don’t like him. I’d just be sad that you didn’t tell me that you had a boothang. Like, bro code, man. I literally tell you the second I find a girl cute, and you’d date somebody without telling me? But _thankfully_ apparently you’re not even dating the guy, so that’s nice. But you could totally be talking to him, like _talk_ -talking and I. Minghao. I’m hurt. Wounded. Stab me in the back a little harder, I think I can still feel my legs. I- okay, you’re crying. Hello?”

“Sorry,” Minghao croaks out. He didn’t even notice himself that he was shedding some tears, but once he realized, he moved his hand to wipe at his eyes. There were a lot of things that were going through his mind at the time, but the biggest thing was just happiness. He was just so relieved that all of his worries were for nothing, everything was okay. It really was just all in his head.

Soonyoung pulls him into a hug, and the older boy starts to pat his back. He giggles a little too, and Minghao can’t help but do the same.

“Did you really think I was going to be mad at you like that?”

“A little.”

“Aw, Minghao.” Soonyoung sways both of their bodies playfully. “Just because I’m not on the best terms with Jun doesn’t mean you can’t spend time with him. If you wanna hang out with him, just do it! I can’t tell you who you can and can’t be friends with.”

Minghao hums into Soonyoung’s shoulder, and can feel the tears slow down before stopping altogether.

“And if you _do_ have a crush on him, I’ll support it. From a distance.”

“Understandable. What about the others? Are they angry?”

“No, not at all. They were just wondering where you were today. We were kinda worried. Because we’re good friends. Asshole.”

“Sorry about that. I was just worried.”

“Bro. I feel.” Soonyoung pulls away from the hug, but keeps his hands on Minghao’s arms. “All good?”

Minghao nods. “But why were you acting so weird to me at first?”

“Minghao. You saw me jamming out in my underwear. That is a sacred ritual. Nobody is to know of it. Understood?”

Minghao laughs. “Yeah, understood.”

“Good. You wanna play some Smash? My Kirby has been trained since we last dueled.”

“Alright, but don’t be disappointed when I bring out Zero Suit.”

Soonyoung looks at him with pleading eyes. “Be gentle.”

The two of them spend a majority of the afternoon playing video games with one another, like nothing happened at all. At one point, out of nowhere, Minghao feels comfortable enough to tell Soonyoung about his real feelings toward Jun.

“No shit?”

“Yeah, no shit.”

“ _Nice,_ dude. I’m happy for you.”

And that was it. Minghao feels horrible for even doubting Soonyoung’s friendship for a second. He himself was a bad friend for doing that, but even so, Soonyoung would probably forgive him for that too.

Before long it was getting dark out, a cue for Minghao to go home. Mr. Kwon insists that he stay for dinner, but Minghao tells him politely that he has food waiting for him at home. Soonyoung waves at him as he closes the front door, and Minghao smiles back.

The sunset gave him a nice change of scenery on the way back home, lighting everything in a warm orange, and Minghao gets the odd sense of comfort that he always feels every autumn. The leaves are falling, and it’s just starting to get too cold to stay outside for very long. Cravings for hot cocoa and lazy days spent in a blanket are just around the corner, and Minghao was looking forward to it.

He walks into his house, kicking off his shoes. He greets his mom, who’s sitting on the couch in front of an episode of House Hunters. She doesn’t seem to be paying too much attention to it, though, since her eyes are on her phone, most likely looking at an email.

He greets her with a hello and a kiss on the forehead, and she asks where he’s been.

“Just at Soonyoung’s.”

“On a monday? When you have homework? Minghao, don’t you think that’s a little irresponsi-”

“It’s okay, mom. I don’t have a lot of homework today,” he lies, straight to her face, with a smile that he knows works after years of practice.

“Okay, sweetie. I’ll call you out when dinner’s ready.”

He heads over to his room, sliding his bag off of his shoulder, about to pull out work, but gets a text that demands his attention instead.

 

**_From: ᕕ( ᐛ )ᕗ_ **

_sup_

**_To: ᕕ( ᐛ )ᕗ_ **

_Hey soonyoung_

**_From: ᕕ( ᐛ )ᕗ_ **

_why did the ketchup blush_

**_To: ᕕ( ᐛ )ᕗ_ **

_I dunno. Why did it_

**_From: ᕕ( ᐛ )ᕗ_ **

_bc he saw the ranch dressing!!!_

**_From: ᕕ( ᐛ )ᕗ_ **

_hohohoho_

**_To: ᕕ( ᐛ )ᕗ_ **

_That was kinda funny_

**_From: ᕕ( ᐛ )ᕗ_ **

_ty i try._

**_From: ᕕ( ᐛ )ᕗ_ **

_anYWAYS you wanna play some minecraft?_

 

Minghao stands and thinks for a solid minute and considers whether or not he should be a good student and do his homework before playing video games. He wants to get into a good college, be successful, and just make his parents proud of his mature decisions.

 

**_To: ᕕ( ᐛ )ᕗ_ **

_I’ll be on in 5 minutes._

 

Eh.

The glory of being a highschool student was being able to stay up late at night with your friends yelling at each other through Skype, all enjoying your time neglecting responsibilities. Minghao and the boys would typically get on at least three times between Monday and Friday, only sometimes staying up later than two in the morning. The weekend, however, was when things were wild, and Minghao can’t even remember how many times he’s fallen asleep with the light of early dawn outside his window and Seokmin snoring through his headphones.

Hopping onto the call with his friends, Minghao is suddenly greeted with a yell that would, in any other circumstance, cause concern that somebody was in mortal danger.

“A creeper just blew up everything that I own,” is the voice that comes right after.

Tragic.

Minghao says hello and waits for his game to load up. His voice is low and cautious, still having an innate worry that the others were a little apprehensive toward him. Soonyoung declares loudly that today was the day that they left their little village together in search of “greater goods”.

Seungkwan needs to take a bathroom break, apparently, so Minghao sits and listens to the conversation that was already being had.

“Okay, but really. Are hot dogs sandwiches?” Seokmin asks with genuine curiosity.

“No. Don’t insult me like that,” Soonyoung replies immediately, with a tone that implies that he was actually offended.

“Think about it, though. It’s a piece of meat in between bread. And you can add toppings and condiments if you want.”

“Yes, I understand that. But it just… feels wrong to call a hot dog a sandwich. You don’t eat it the same. And the shape is completely different.”

“But you’d eat a burger with a circular patty or a square one. Remember those patties in middle school that were supposed to be ‘barbeque pork’ and it was some manufactured cut of meat that was probably supposed to look like ribs? You told me you still ate that and _that_ was a weird shape.”

“You’re right, I guess. It does kind of make sense.”

“You guys, I just checked online,” Mingyu butts in. “According to the National Hot Dog and Sausage Council, a hot dog is not a sandwich.”

“Oh, darn. Just when I was convinced.”

“There’s a _National Hot Dog and Sausage Council?_ ”

“Apparently so.”

“What the _fuck_ did I just come back to?” Seungkwan laughs.

“A very serious conversation of the identity of a hot dog,” Minghao explains.

He has a sigh of relief. Everything was fine.

“Oh, by the way you guys. I made a new friend recently,” Mingyu says. “Turns out he plays a lot of the games that we play. He’s pretty cool and he said he’d like to join us sometime, if that’s alright.”

It had always been the four of them for the longest time, so the invitation of another person kind of had everybody on their toes. Minghao didn’t know what to expect; there was the chance that this guy was just another chill person just wanting to mine and get materials, or he could go around and steal items from everybody while destroying their houses for the sake of “fun”. They had a very laid-back way of playing, and Minghao was a little worried that adding somebody new would ruin that.

“Does he have a Skype?” Soonyoung asks, and Minghao can hear just the slightest hint of hesitation in his voice. Guess that concern wasn’t just in his head.

“Yeah, I’m adding him to the call right now.”

There’s some anticipation and silence before somebody familiar quietly says hello.

“Wonwoo?” Minghao wonders aloud as soon as he realizes who the voice belongs to.

“Oh, hello, Minghao.” The bass of his voice seemed to only get stronger over a call. It was a weird mix of haunting and calming. Minghao found it kinda hot.

“Wait, you two know each other?”

“Yeah, we have physio together. How did you two meet?” Minghao asks, remembering not a second later that Wonwoo had asked for Mingyu’s number the week before. Huh. If Wonwoo just wanted to play games with them, why didn’t he just ask Minghao?

“Wonwoo started texting me out of nowhere, apparently somebody gave him my number. It was a little weird at first, but I’m always down to become friends with another bro. We’ve been talking for like a week now and he’s pretty cool,” Mingyu provides.

Wonwoo chuckles. “Thank you, Mingyu. You’re pretty cool too.”

“Thanks, man.” There’s a pause, and Minghao can practically hear the smile on Mingyu’s face. “Anyways, he shouldn’t be a problem. He just likes making houses look nice. He’s pretty cool. No homo.”

“Okay, Mingyu, we fucking get it, he’s pretty cool.” Seungkwan sighs. “That’s the third time you’ve said that in the span of forty seconds.”

“Sorry, he’s just… really cool.”

“I’m going to punch you.”

“It’s not going to hurt.”

“You fuckin- oh hey, I found diamond.”

 

After a couple of hours (that felt more like forty-five minutes, _tops_ ), Wonwoo announces that he’s going to go to bed. He seemed to be pretty happy with what he had accomplished, and Mingyu was right - he evidently had a knack for making houses look really nice. He was there for the least amount of time but his house had so much room and decoration that it’d probably be the in-game equivalent to a mansion. He even offered to spruce up the houses of the other guys, but everybody seemed comfortable with the idea that they could probably could all just move into his house instead.

Speaking of, the others seemed to take him in pretty well. Minghao was a little worried for his friend at first. Wonwoo would usually be quiet and mind his own business, which made everybody happy. He opened up eventually, cracking occasional jokes that only Mingyu and Soonyoung laughed at.

While the others wished him a good night, Minghao realizes that it was just past midnight. He sits for minute and thinks about how he should follow Wonwoo in leaving the call so that he could finish his work, but Soonyoung is already starting another conversation.

“So, guys. Anything new?”

And just like that, the four of them begin to talk about anything and everything, from what pizza toppings were best to the things that they feared most in life. Only occasionally would their late-night gaming sessions turn into heart-to-heart conversations, but Minghao never minded. It was something that he felt that brought them all even closer.

Before long, it was too late for a school night, and yet Minghao only had a small feeling of regret. Time you enjoy can’t be time wasted, after all.

“I really just can’t believe that I’m about to graduate, y’know? It just feels like there’s a lot of pressure on me to do well, and waiting for college acceptance letters are a pain in the ass, and then there’s paying for tuition, transportation, books,” he sighs. “I don’t want to grow up, you guys. I just want to stay playing video games and eating lunch with you all.”

Minghao hums, trying to give Soonyoung some semblance of understanding. He must be pretty stressed out about everything, and it would make sense. Even the thought of all that for Minghao was mortifying, so for Soonyoung to be actually going through it made him feel sympathy towards him.

“No matter that, though,” Soonyoung starts again. “Enough about me. I’d rather do what I’ve been doing for weeks and ignore all of my pre-existing problems by distracting myself. Anybody else got something they wanna say?”

“I do,” Minghao provides. “I have a crush on somebody.” He figures since Soonyoung already knew about it, the rest have a sort of right to know about it too. There wasn’t going to be any more secrets. Minghao didn’t have anything to hide.

“Ooooh, fucking _finally,_ ” Seungkwan groans. “I’m so tired of hearing about Mingyu’s like, monthly love interests. This is refreshing.”

“Hey! It’s not my fault I have the most game out of everybody here. I’m the coolest guy in this hetero squad.”

“Okay, first of all, you have no game. You have constant crushes on girls left and right and you never manage to get with any of them. Secondly, please, never, _ever,_ refer to us as the _hetero squad_ ever again,” Seungkwan scoffs. “Not all of us are straight, dickweed.”

There was a momentary, maybe a little awkward pause before Mingyu practically screams, “I knew it! Minghao, remember I told you? I told you that Seungkwan had a thing for guys!”

“Mingyu… I’m not going to say you’re wrong, but I’m also not the one I was referring to.”

“Wait, what? Who else is there?”

“Me?” Minghao asks to Mingyu, wondering how his best friend seemingly forgot about his sexual preference.

“ _Really?_ ”

“Mingyu, you’ve known I was bi since like, the seventh grade.”

“I think I would have remembered something like this.”

“Mingyu, he told you he had a crush on you in freshman year!” Minghao almost forgot about that. Yes, admittedly, he did have a thing for Mingyu. It was probably a combination of the close connection that they had with one another along with puberty starting to affect the both of them, blossoming Mingyu into the handsome young man he was today, and blossoming Minghao’s hormones out of control. After your typical heartbreak and a little bit of TLC for himself, Minghao’s now entirely happy with his relationship with his friend.

“...really?”

“I gave you flowers…” That was mildly embarrassing for Minghao remember, even worse to admit.

“I thought you were just being nice!”

“I don’t think giving you flowers, a book of love poems, and a signed contract promising that he would love you until the both of you-”

“I have a crush on Jun! A huge gay crush on Wen Junhui!” He needed to get off of that topic as fast as humanly possible. He really did not want to hear about what his freshman self thought was love. Plus, they might as well get back on track to what they were talking about.

“Oh. Really?” Seokmin asks.

“Yeah, he told me earlier today,” Soonyoung explains. “I think it’s pretty cool. It’s time Minghao actually gets himself out there.”

“Yeah, Minghao’s a good guy. Never would have thought you liked bad boys though.”

“I mean I guess,” Minghao chuckles.

“I’m serious!” Seokmin explains. “He’s so rough and tough, and you’re as hard as, like, petroleum jelly, man.”

Minghao would try to protest, but he knows it’s true. It’s been too long since he’s actually trained and kept himself in shape. He’s out of breath after running to the fridge to get a snack.

“But none of us are going to bother Minghao about this, right? We leave Mingyu alone, no matter who he starts to develop crushes on,” Soonyoung says.

“I don’t like your tone,” Mingyu pouts, but he’s ignored.

“Sounds good to me,” Seungkwan says. Seokmin adds an enthusiastic “mhm” with it, and Mingyu mumbles a “yeah”.

“Thanks, you guys.”

“You _have_ to tell us everything. I want to know every detail.”

“Seungkwan, leave him alone. He’ll tell you what he wants.”

“Listen, if _I’m_ going to be robbed of my dream high school gay romance, at least let me enjoy other people’s experiences.”

Minghao chuckles. “I’ll keep you guys updated, don’t worry. But I should probably log off now. I have a lot of homework I didn’t do.”

“Tsktsk. Minghao, ignoring your responsibilities isn’t very attractive. Jun won’t want to suck your dick.”

“Or let you suck his dick. Minghao’s a bottom.”

“Uh, no. Minghao is a top, as far as I’m concerned.”

“Oh come on, he’s so _obviously_ a bottom. Right, Minghao?”

“Good night, you guys,” Minghao laughs before hanging up.

After taking all of the work out of his bag and laying it down in front of him, he sighs. He probably won’t be getting much sleep tonight, but that was fine to him.

His old friends still loved him, his new ones showed that they cared too. He went on a date (kinda, let him live) date with his crush, which also means that he miraculously is now on good terms with the lab partner he was terrified of at first. Despite the hours of schoolwork ahead of him, his shoulders haven’t felt his light in a while.

He crosses his fingers and hopes it stays this way.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i hope yall are ready for what happens next hohoho :^)
> 
> thanks for reading!!

**Author's Note:**

> thanks for reading! you can check out my tumblr if you want: [@krxmbl](http://krxmbl.tumblr.com/)


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